A galaxy's stop-and-start young radio jets
Very long baseline array reveals object's history

Date:
August 25, 2020
Source:
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Summary:
A new VLBA image shows details of a young jet emitted from the
core of an active galaxy, revealing that the jet activity stopped,
then restarted only a decade ago.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== [Multi-frequency | Credit: Lister et al.; Sophia Dagnello, NRAO/AUI/NSF] Multi-frequency composite VLBA image of the galaxy TXS 0128+554,
500 million light-years from Earth. The image shows young radio jets originating near a supermassive black hole at the core of the galaxy. The
jets in this image started about 80 years ago, stopped, then resumed
about 10 years ago.

Credit: Lister et al.; Sophia Dagnello, NRAO/AUI/NSF [Multi-frequency |
Credit: Lister et al.; Sophia Dagnello, NRAO/AUI/NSF] Multi-frequency
composite VLBA image of the galaxy TXS 0128+554, 500 million light-years
from Earth. The image shows young radio jets originating near a
supermassive black hole at the core of the galaxy. The jets in this image started about 80 years ago, stopped, then resumed about 10 years ago.

Credit: Lister et al.; Sophia Dagnello, NRAO/AUI/NSF Close In a new image,
made with the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array
(VLBA), young, radio-emitting jets of material emerge from the core of an elliptical galaxy some 500 million light-years from Earth. After NASA's
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected high-energy gamma rays coming
from the object, scientists used the VLBA to make high-resolution images
of the galaxy, dubbed TXS 0128+554.


==========================================================================
The image is a composite of six VLBA images made at observing frequencies ranging from 2.2 GigaHertz (GHz) to 22.2 GHz. The broad lobes on either
side of the bright core are the result of jet activity that began roughly
80 years ago.

The gap between these lobes and the central region indicates, the
scientists said, that the jet activity stopped sometime after that,
then resumed about 10 years ago.

"These are among the youngest known jets in such systems, and only a
handful are known to emit gamma-rays," said Matthew Lister, of Purdue University.

The bright edges of the lobes are where the ejected material, moving at
about a third the speed of light, impacted material within the galaxy. The bright emitting areas total about 35 light-years across, and are at the
core of the galaxy, where a supermassive black hole about one million
times the mass of the Sun resides.

Lister and his colleagues are reporting their findings in the
Astrophysical Journal.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National
Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
National_Radio_Astronomy_Observatory. Note: Content may be edited for
style and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* Images_of_the_galaxy_TXS_0128+554 ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. M. L. Lister, D. C. Homan, Y. Y. Kovalev, S. Mandal,
A. B. Pushkarev, A.

Siemiginowska. TXS 0128 554: A Young Gamma-Ray-emitting Active
Galactic Nucleus with Episodic Jet Activity. The Astrophysical
Journal, 2020; 899 (2): 141 DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aba18d ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200825110640.htm

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