Radio Galaxy Zoo Talk

One or separate objects?

  • astronomas by astronomas

    It seems that these radio emissions are connected. All of them in radio freequency are located on one clear line. But are they from one source?

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to astronomas's comment.

    Welcome to Radio Galaxy Zoo, astronomas! 😃

    With the possible exception of the faint (single contour) source to the SW ('below' the others)*, yes, they are all connected.

    This is an example of a #triple, which is radio emission from a 'core' - host galaxy, containing the supermassive black hole and its accretion disk - and two 'lobes. The host is a quasar (or QSO), named SDSS J110153.45+624150.5; it has a redshift of 0.664. Here's the SDSS image of it (it's the blue star-like thing in the center):

    enter image description here

    There are several Galaxy Zoo blog posts which explain what's going on in more detail; perhaps The Curious Lives Of Radio Galaxies – Part One and The Curious Lives of Radio Galaxies – Part Two might be good ones to start with.

    Hope this helps, and happy hunting!

    *that may be an artifact, a bit like the 'compass points' spikes you see in optical images of stars; the tiny spot near the top is almost certainly an artifact

    Posted