help
-
by
Emmabray
Look at this beauty cross, could this be two spewing out jets?
Posted
-
by
JeanTate
in response to Emmabray's comment.
Yes, this is a classic #doublelobe, which is two back-to-back jets emitted from the center of the active nucleus of a galaxy (hence, an AGN, active galaxy nucleus). The current best model for this class of observations is a super-massive black hole (SMBH), with a mass of at least a million sols (1 sol = the mass of our Sun), surrounded by an accretion disk of matter, and the jets are emitted from the two 'poles' (perpendicular to the disk) by physical processes which involve magnetic fields and fully ionized plasmas (and which are not yet fully understood). The physical size of this 'engine' (SMBH, accretion disk, launch zone of the jets) is smaller than our solar system, so it appears the same as a point, for all galaxies.
Isn't radio astronomy amazing? 😮 😄
Happy hunting. 😃
Posted