ARG0003gn4 - Strange Jets

are both Radio signals coming from the same IR-signal on the left side

Posted December 21, 2013 9:38 AM

by akapinska scientist in response to JKD's comment.

no, the jets always travel in opposite directions when they are ejected from the vicinity of black hole, so the infrared source that causes this radio jets needs to be somewhere in between the radio lobes/jets - I'm not convinced it's detected here though! so that's very interesting!

i'm thinking though, whether the other two much fainter radio signals to the left are lobes of the radio galaxy are from the IR you mention. i'm nowhere to be 100% sure on this bit though....

Posted December 21, 2013 11:43 AM

by enno.middelberg scientist, translator in response to akapinska's comment.

The two bright radio lobes indeed seem to come from an undetected IR source. Both lobes have their brightest spot towards the outer edge, which is frequently observed in double-lobed (or FRII) radio galaxies. The best example is Cygnus A: http://images.nrao.edu/110

In Cygnus A one can see the "hotspots" at the outer edges of the two lobes. This is where the jets terminate and the plasma begins to flow back to the galaxy. I think the same is going on here, but the object is farther away and therefore smaller.

The origin of the two fainter sources is unclear: the leftmost component could be entirely unrelated, but it could also be a leftover from a previous period of activity of the same source which now makes the two large lobes. This is known as recurring activity. The faint radio object at the top is unrelated, I would think.

Posted December 21, 2013 4:10 PM

by akapinska scientist

Yes, enno, that's right, and you go on into much more technical details 😃
My main point was that the infrared that @JKD asks about is unrelated to the radio structures we see.

Posted December 27, 2013 12:07 PM

by Dolorous_Edd