NGC 7679: an anomalous, composite Seyfert 1 galaxy whose X-ray luminous AGN vanishes at optical wavelengths

Morphological disturbances and gas kinematics of the SB0 galaxy NGC 7679 = Arp 216 are investigated to understand the history of this highly composite object, where AGN and starburst signatures dominate in the X-ray and optical/IR regime, respectively. Perturbations of the ionized gas velocity field appear quite mild within 15'' (~5 kpc) of the center, so it can be straightforwardly modeled as a circularly rotating disk. Outside that radius, significant disturbances are seen. In particular, the eastern distorted arm as well as the huge neutral hydrogen bridge connecting NGC 7679 to the nearby Seyfert spiral NGC 7682 unambiguously represent the vestige of a close encounter of the two objects ~500 Myr ago. The relationship of such a past event with the much more recent, centrally located starburst (not older than 20 Myr) cannot be easily established. Together, the classification of NGC 7679 is less extreme than that proposed in the past, being simply a (disturbed) galaxy where starburst and AGN activity coexist with a starburst dominating the bolometric luminosity.