Are all radio galaxies genuine ellipticals?

Abstract

Classical double radio sources are believed to be powered by a strong relativistic jet due to the presence of a rapidly spinning black hole in the center of a giant E galaxy formed by the merging of two galaxies. If this is true, no radio source should have been found in spiral or S0 galaxies. A number of radio S0s have been reported, but most of them are probably misclassified Es. However, our own observations confirm that NGC 612 is an S0 although it is associated with the FR II radio source PKS 0131-36. We conclude that S0s can be classical radio sources, but that such occurences are extremely rare.