The Perfect Example?
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Rosco.medows
Can someone please explain what this image contains. It looks to me like a good example of the symmetry of jets. I have little knowledge of astronomy and joined to learn a little more as i'm fascinated with it.
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JeanTate
Welcome to RGZ, Rosco.medows.
This is an almost classic example of a #triple, a central radio source (called the "core") and two, almost perfectly symmetrical lobes, connected by back-to-back jets. Each lobe has a "hotspot", which is where the radio intensity reaches its maximum.
Physically, there's a supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy (called the "host") - the white (IR) blob - which, through its interactions with the surrounding plasma, produces two highly relativistic jets, shooting in opposite directions. There's a lot which is yet to be understood about exactly how this works, but comparing either jet to what's in the Large Hadron Collider is like comparing a supernova to a candle. The jets plow through the diffuse, hot plasma that surrounds the host (called the intergalactic medium, IGM, or intra-cluster medium), eventually being stopped by it; that's where the hotspots are. The lobes are kinda like bubbles resulting from the energy the jets dump into the IGM.
The host in this case is SDSS J103748.94+154123.3, which has a redshift of 0.196. Interestingly, its spectrum gives little hint of the stupendous particle accelerator at its center; here's an image of it:
Hope this helps, and happy hunting! 😃
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Rosco.medows
That's amazing such an epic picture to imagine. Thanks for the explanation
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ivywong
scientist, admin
Wow, this is a picture perfect #doublelobe. great spotting @Rosco.medows and great explanation as always @JeanTate!
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JeanTate
in response to Rosco.medows's comment.
You're welcome @Rosco.medows, and thanks @ivywong !
which has a redshift of 0.196
I should have added some words about how far away this is ... as the universe is ruled by General Relativity, "distance" is not so simple! 😮
The time it took light to get from there to us is ~2.4 billion years; however, the "comoving radial distance" is ~2.6 billion light-years (a light-year is a measure of distance), the "angular size distance" is ~2.2 billion light-years, and the "luminosity distance" is ~3.2 billion light-years.
However, you measure it, a very long way away!
If you're interested in doing your own conversions from redshift to distance, I recommend Ned Wright's CosmoCalc. It also includes links to his excellent Cosmology Tutorial, which covers things like why there isn't a single "distance" measure, in cosmology.
Happy hunting! 😃
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