The discovery of strong extragalactic polarization using the Parkes Radio Telescope

Details The discovery of strong extragalactic polarization using the Parkes Radio Telescope The discovery of strong extragalactic polarization using the Parkes Radio Telescope

Dec 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002jahh....5..107b&link_type=abstract

Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage (ISSN 1440-2807), Vol. 5, No. 2, p. 107 - 114 (2002).

Mathematics

Logic

Centaurus A, Extragalactic Nebulae, Parkes Radio Telescope, Polarization

Scientific paper

By the end of 1961, interferometry to arc-minute precision in the East-West direction had resolved the compact source at the centre of Centaurus A into two equal components spaced about 5′ in right ascension and with measured widths. Were they on the dark bar of the associated extragalactic nebula, NGC 5128, and perhaps indicatios of a toroidal source, or were they in the perpendicular direction and on their way out to feed the extended radio source Centaurus A? The 6′.7 pencil beam of the Parkes Radio Telescope, employed in an unusual scanning mode, was capable of just separating the peaks and resolving the ambiguity in declination. In 1962 April, I carried out the first observations of linear polarization in Centaurus A using the Parkes antenna, and these were soon followed by other observations made by Brian Cooper and Marcus Price and then by Frank Gardner and John Whiteoak. Because the research papers reporting these pioneering observations were not published in chronological order and the dates of the observations and submission of the manuscripts ware not mentioned in them there has been considerable confusion surrounding the discovery history of Centaurus A polarization at Parkes, and this has been compounded by a misleading contemporary newspaper report, uninformed folklore, and conflicting recollectioms printed 30 years after the event. This paper clarifies the situation by presenting a first-hand account of the original observations and associated publications.

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