HST and VLA Observations of Nearby Low Luminosity Radio Sources

Nearby powerful radio galaxies provide unique probes of the relationship between the central black hole, the host galaxy, and the radio source. We describe recent results from a study of a complete sample of 21 nearby FRI radio galaxies identified with UGC galaxies. We present HST broad and narrow band images of the host galaxies which reveal the properties of the gas and dust disks in the central regions of the galaxies. We present VLBA observations which reveal the prevelance of possibly relativistic jets on the parsec to tens of parsec scales. These jets all fade quickly (on scales of order 50 pc). This fading may be due to some combination of adiabatic and synchrotron losses. Association between the jet and host galaxy properties on the tens to hundreds of parsecs scale are explored.