The two-phase gas outflow in the Circinus Galaxy.

We employ Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) data to study the ionized and very ionized gas phase of the feedback in Circinus, the closest Seyfert 2 galaxy. The analysis of the nebular emission allowed us to detect a remarkable high-ionization gas outflow, out of the galaxy plane, traced by the coronal lines [Fe viii] 6089Å and [Fe x] 6374Å, extending up to 700 parsecs north-west from the nucleus. The gas kinematics reveal expanding gas shells with velocities of a few hundred km s^-1, spatially coincident with prominent hard X-ray emission detected by Chandra. Density and temperature sensitive line ratios show that the extended high-ionization gas is characterized by a temperature of up to 18000 K and a gas density of n_e > 10² cm⁻³. We propose two scenarios consistent with the observations to explain the high-ionization component of the outflow: an active galactic nuclei (AGN) ejection that took place ⁓10⁵ yr ago or local gas excitation by shocks produced by the passage of a radio jet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]