The Nature of the Optical 'Jets' in the Spiral Galaxy NGC 1097

We present new observations of the jet features in the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1097, including optical spectroscopy of the brightest jet features, two-color optical imagery, new VLA mapping at 327 MHz, and archival 1.4 GHz VLA data reprocessed for improved sensitivity. No optical emission lines appear to an equivalent width limit of 15-30 A (depending on the line wavelength). The jets are uniformly blue, with B - V = 0.45 for the two well-observed jets R1 and R2. No radio emission from the jets is detected at either frequency; the 327-MHz data set particularly stringent limits on "fossil" emission from aging synchrotron electrons. The morphology of the jets is shown to be inconsistent with any conical distribution of emission enhanced by edge-brightening; their combination of transverse profile and relative narrowness cannot be reproduced with cone models. The optical colors, lack of radio emission, and morphology of the features lead us to conclude that they are tidal manifestations, perhaps produced by multiple encounters of the small elliptical companion NGC 1097A with the disk of NGC 1097. We present photometric and morphological comparisons to the tail of NGC 465 1, which is similar in scale and morphology to the northeast "dogleg" feature R1 in NGC 1097.