Not sure what's going on here...
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by
Cardiffian
Have marked these three sets of radio contours as being connected since they are so well aligned, they look odd though.
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by
JeanTate
in response to Cardiffian's comment.
I think this could be #restarted (as I said in my comment, "6 months ago".
In other words, two separate "eruptions" from the SMBH, leading to two separate sets of lobes. The reason that the SW pair look different from the NE one may be due to viewing angle (perhaps the SW pair is aimed more directly at us?), environment (perhaps the IGM - inter-galactic medium - towards the SW has a different density or temperature?), or some combo.
What does seem rather odd is why the older lobes (the ones further from the host) seem so small, intense and well-defined, compared with the younger ones.
Perhaps a radio astronomer could comment?
Posted
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by
ivywong
scientist, admin
Yes, I agree that all the radio components belong to the same radio galaxy but note that the host galaxy is unlikely to be the bright star. The multiple peaks can be due to multiple episodes of activity or it could be a multi-component ejecta from a single episode of activity.
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