Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-01T13:34:37.906Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Distortions in Compact Steep-Spectrum Radio Sources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

P. N. Wilkinson
Affiliation:
Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories, Jodrell Bank
R. E. Spencer
Affiliation:
Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories, Jodrell Bank
A.C.S. Readhead
Affiliation:
Owens Valley Observatory, California Institute of Technology
T.J. Pearson
Affiliation:
Owens Valley Observatory, California Institute of Technology
R.S. Simon
Affiliation:
Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C.

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The size, and therefore the importance, of the population of compact, steep-spectrum, radio sources has only recently been recognised. While it is now clear that the extended steep-spectrum sources are powered by a pair of, originally anti-parallel, beams which transport energy to the outer lobes some 105–106 parcsec away, our understanding of the compact steep-spectrum sources is almost nil. This is largely because our radio maps have not had high enough resolution to show their structures in any detail. However 1.67 and 5 GHz MERLIN observations (resolutions 0″.25 and 0″.1) of the ~20 steep-spectrum 3CR sources whose LAS is ≲2″ have now allowed us to classify their structures, at least in broad terms. These MERLIN maps, and recent VLBI maps, show that while there is a wide range of structures - from colinear doubles to amorphous “blobs” - the “peculiar” structures are strongly concentrated in the objects whose optical counterparts are called QSO's.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1984 

References

1. Kapahi, V.K. Astron. Astrophys. Suppl., 43, 381 (1981)Google Scholar
2. Peacock, J. and Wall, J., M.N.R.A.S. 198, 843 (1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3. van Breugel, W. and Heckman, T., Proc. IAU Symposium No.97, p.61 Google Scholar
4. Hutchings, J.B. and Campbell, B., Nature 303, 584 (1983)Google Scholar
5. Bothun, G.D. et al. Astron. J. 87, 1621 (1982)Google Scholar
6. Balick, B. and Heckman, T. Astrophys. J., 265, L1 (1983)Google Scholar