Milliarcsecond Polarization Studies of Compact Extragalactic Radio Sources

紧凑河外射电源的毫弧秒偏振研究

• 批准号: 0098608
• 负责人: John F. Wardle
• 金额: $ 27万
• 依托单位: Brandeis University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-06-01 至 2005-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0098608&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Milliarcsecond; Polarization; Studies; Compact; Extragalactic

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).***

AST 0098608项目有两个组成部分：该项目的第一部分是研究非常遥远的星系和类星体中央区域的暴力活动。这些物体的中心可能比一千个普通星系更辉煌，并且是宇宙中最暴力和充满活力的物体。 恒星和气体落入一个可能重达十亿个太阳的超质量黑洞中产生了大量的能量。大部分能量都集中在几乎光速移动的物质的喷射中。这些喷气机辐射可见光，X射线和无线电波，可以观察到。这项工作旨在确定喷气机的组成以及如何专注。最终的目标是更好地了解大型黑洞的物理学，以及它们如何产生能量。该项目的第二部分是使用这些相同的类星体和星系来衡量宇宙的扩展速度。它们是如此的明亮，以至于几乎可以看到可观察到的宇宙的边缘，然后回到宇宙很小的时候。该项目将使用一种新的直接方法来测量这些类星体和星系的距离。希望是，当与我们远离我们的速度的测量结合在一起时，这些将决定宇宙的膨胀速率是否正在加速或减速。结果对于找到宇宙的时代和了解宇宙的最早历史至关重要。该项目的资金由NSF外层次天文学和宇宙学计划（AST/EXC）提供。***