THE NATURE OF THE OPTICAL JETS IN THE SPIRAL GALAXY NGC-1097

We present new observations of the jet features in the barred spiral g alaxy NGC 1097, including optical spectroscopy of the brightest jet fe atures, two-color optical imagery, new VLA mapping at 327 MHz, and arc hival 1.4 GHz VLA data reprocessed for improved sensitivity. No optica l emission lines appear to an equivalent width limit of 15-30 Angstrom (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 emiss ion from the jets is detected at either frequency; the 327-MHz data se t particularly stringent limits on ''fossil'' emission from aging sync hrotron electrons. The morphology of the jets is shown to be inconsist ent with any conical distribution of emission enhanced by edge-brighte ning; their combination of transverse profile and relative narrowness cannot be reproduced with cone models. The optical colors, lack of rad io emission, and morphology of the features lead us to conclude that t hey 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 N GC 4651, which is similar in scale and morphology to the northeast ''d ogleg'' feature R1 in NGC 1097. (C) 1997 American Astronomical Society .