Compact Nonthermal Jets in Active Galactic Nuclei

从类星体和其他活动星系的核中观测到的壮观的喷流代表了宇宙中最具活力的长寿现象。在发现喷流几十年后，天体物理学家仍在努力解释一个系统是如何将超热、磁化的等离子体喷射成狭窄的光束的，这个系统涉及一个质量为数百万或数十亿个太阳的黑洞，它吞噬了周围环境中的气体。这个项目将探索这些射流的特性——流速（非常接近光速）、磁场、电子的能量和喷嘴的摆动——以及这些特性如何依赖于时间、频率和能量输出。这些将为弄清控制喷射的物理机制提供线索。它们将通过世界一流的望远镜在无线电、红外和光学波长上的反复观测来完成，以获得喷流发射的辐射光谱的图像和多个快照。本项目由美国国家科学基金会星系外天文学和宇宙学项目（AST/EXC）资助

AST 0098579MarscherThe spectacular jets observed to emanate from the nuclei of quasars and other active galaxies represent the most energetic long-lived phenomenon in the universe. Decades after the discovery of jets, astrophysicists are still struggling to explain how ultra-hot, magnetized,plasma is ejected into narrow beams from a system involving a black hole weighing millions or billions of suns swallowing gas from its environment. This project will explore the properties of these jets - the flow speeds (which are very close to the speed of light), the magnetic field, the energization of electrons, and wiggling of the nozzle - and how these depend on time, frequency, and energy output. These will provide clues needed to figure out the physical mechanisms that control the jets. They will be accomplished through repeated observations at radio, infrared, andoptical wavelengths with world-class telescopes to obtain images and multiple snapshots of spectra of the radiation emitted by the jets. Funding for this project was provided by the NSF program for Extragalactic Astronomy & Cosmology (AST/EXC).***