6533b835fe1ef96bd129f48e
RESEARCH PRODUCT
RadioAstron reveals a spine-sheath jet structure in 3C 273
Gabriele BruniJ. A. ZensusP. G. EdwardsJosé L. GómezJames M. AndersonAlexander B. PushkarevYu. Yu. KovalevYu. Yu. KovalevYu. Yu. KovalevManel PeruchoKirill SokolovskyKirill SokolovskyAntonio FuentesMikhail M. LisakovMikhail M. LisakovJosé-maría MartíLeonid I. GurvitsLeonid I. GurvitsLeonid I. GurvitsAndrei LobanovAndrei LobanovL. Vega-garcíaTuomas SavolainenTuomas Savolainensubject
Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical PhenomenaStratification (water)FOS: Physical sciencesJets [Galaxies]AstrophysicsAstrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics01 natural sciencesQuasars: individual: 3C 2730103 physical sciencesAngular resolution010303 astronomy & astrophysicsAstrophysics::Galaxy AstrophysicsPhysicsJet (fluid)Internal energy010308 nuclear & particles physicsAstronomy and AstrophysicsQuasarPlasmaGalaxies: activeAstrophysics - Astrophysics of GalaxiesActive [Galaxies]Magnetic fieldFlow velocitySpace and Planetary ScienceGalaxies: jetsAstrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary AstrophysicsIndividual: 3C 273 [Quasars]description
We present Space-VLBI RadioAstron observations at 1.6 GHz and 4.8 GHz of the flat spectrum radio quasar 3C 273, with detections on baselines up to 4.5 and 3.3 Earth Diameters, respectively. Achieving the best angular resolution at 1.6 GHz to date, we have imaged limb-brightening in the jet, not previously detected in this source. In contrast, at 4.8 GHz, we detected emission from a central stream of plasma, with a spatial distribution complementary to the limb-brightened emission, indicating an origin in the spine of the jet. While a stratification across the jet width in the flow density, internal energy, magnetic field, or bulk flow velocity are usually invoked to explain the limb-brightening, the different jet structure detected at the two frequencies probably requires a stratification in the emitting electron energy distribution. Future dedicated numerical simulations will allow the determination of which combination of physical parameters are needed to reproduce the spine-sheath structure observed by Space-VLBI with RadioAstron in 3C 273. © ESO 2021.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-10-01 |