Relativistic jets and the most powerful radio sources in the universe

Technical Report · Wed May 20 04:00:00 EDT 1987

OSTI ID:6556158

Bridle, A

Relativistic jets, which are beams of particles and magnetic fields emitting synchrotron radiation that emanate from black holes at the centers of galaxies and quasars, have been one of the most exciting discoveries made at the Very Large Array (VLA) operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). The VLA is an array of 27 antennas, each 25 meters in diameter, distributed in a Y-formation with two branches 21 kilometers long and one branch 19 kilometers long. Astronomers can use it to study relativistic jets that generate intense natural radio sources (or transmitters). These sources, associated with regions hundreds of thousands of light years across, are the most powerful in the universe in energy output. In his lecture, Bridle describes how consecutive advances in imaging techniques for radio astronomy have uncovered the properties of the powerful radio sources, culminating in the discovery at the VLA that many of these sources contain radio emitting jets. He then describes some of the NRAO's research on these jets, and discusses the jets' physical properties. He concludes with an outlook for the future: the NRAO's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) is to be completed in the early 1990's. The VLBA is an array of ten radio telescopes distributed from Hawaii to St. Croix, from the Canadian border to Texas. With the VLBA, astronomers plan to look more deeply into these radio sources. 15 figs.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH00016
• OSTI ID: 6556158
• Report Number(s): BNL-52084; ON: DE89005980
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640102* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Stars & Quasi-Stellar
Radio & X-Ray Sources
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ANTENNAS
ASTRONOMY
BLACK HOLES
BREMSSTRAHLUNG
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
DOCUMENT TYPES
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ENERGY RANGE
EQUIPMENT
LECTURES
MAGNETIC FIELDS
RADIATIONS
RADIO EQUIPMENT
RADIO TELESCOPES
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
SYNCHROTRON RADIATION
TELESCOPES