Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Apr 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002aps..apr.k3002s&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, April Meeting, Jointly Sponsored with the High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) of the American As
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Scientific paper
With its exquisite spatial resolution of better than 0.5 arcsecond, the Chandra observatory is uniquely capable of resolving and studying the spatial structure of extragalactic X-ray jets on scales of a few to a few hundred kilo-parsec. I will review a selection of Chandra images, and present the first data from a survey for X-rays from a systematic sample of 50 radio jets. By considering the electromagnetic spectrum over the radio to X-ray range, many of the X-ray jets can be interpreted as an extension of the radio synchrotron emission. The X-ray data then can give information on lifetimes and acceleration sites.I am most excited by the interpretation that at least a few of the jets emit X-rays by inverse Compton scattering of high energy electrons on the cosmic microwave background. In these cases the X-ray emitting plasma is required to be ejected from the parent AGN at relativistic velocities, with bulk Lorentz factors of 2 to 20. For such a mechanism, the emissivity is proportional to the fourth power of the local microwave background temperature. This emissivity compensates for the cosmological (1+z)-4 decrease of surface brightness. Therefore, if the interpretation is correct, identical objects can be detected with the same sensitivity and spatial resolution anywhere in the more distant universe. more distant universe
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