Milliarcsecond Polarization Studies of Compact Extragalactic Radio Sources

AST 0098608Ward这个项目由两部分组成：第一部分是研究遥远星系和类星体中心区域的剧烈活动。这些天体的中心可以比一千个正常星系更明亮，是宇宙中最猛烈和最有能量的天体。恒星和气体落入一个质量可能相当于10亿个太阳的超大质量黑洞，产生了巨大的能量。大部分能量集中在以接近光速移动的物质喷流中。这些喷流发出可见光、X射线和无线电波，可以观察到。这项工作旨在确定喷气式飞机是由什么组成的，以及它们是如何聚焦的。最终目标是更好地了解大质量黑洞的物理学，以及它们是如何产生能量的。这个项目的第二部分是使用这些同样的类星体和星系来测量宇宙膨胀的速度。它们是如此明亮，以至于几乎可以看到它们在可见宇宙的边缘，并追溯到宇宙非常年轻的时候。这个项目将使用一种新的、直接的方法来测量到这些类星体和星系的距离。人们希望，当结合对它们远离我们的速度的测量时，这些将确定宇宙的膨胀速度是在加快还是在放缓。这一结果对于确定宇宙的年龄和了解宇宙的最早历史都很重要。该项目的资金由美国国家科学基金会河外天文和宇宙学计划(AST/EXC)提供。*

AST 0098608WardleThis project has two components: The first part of this project is to study the violent activity in the central regions of very distant galaxies and quasars. The centers of these objects can be more brilliant than a thousand normal galaxies, and are the most violent and energetic objects in the universe. Enormous amounts of energy are generated by stars and gas falling into a super-massive black hole that may weigh as much as a billion suns. Much of the energy is focused into jets of matter moving at nearly the speed of light. These jets radiate visible light, x-rays and radio waves, which can be observe. This work aims to determine what the jets are made of, and how they are focused. The ultimate goal is to understand better the physics of massive black holes, and how they generate energy.The second part of this project is to use these same quasars and galaxies to measure how fast the universe is expanding. They are so bright that they can be seen almost to the edge of the observable universe, and back in time to when the universe was very young. This project will use a new and direct way of measuring the distances to these quasars and galaxies. The hope is that, when combined with measurements of their speed away from us, these will determine if the expansion rate of the universe is speeding up or slowing down. The result is important for finding the age of the universe, and for understanding the earliest history of the universe.Funding for this project was provided by the NSF program for Extragalactic Astronomy & Cosmology (AST/EXC).***