Other
Scientific paper
May 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006sptz.prop30337r&link_type=abstract
Spitzer Proposal ID #30337
Other
Scientific paper
We propose to obtain 24 and 70 micron images of the western hot spot in the classical double-lobed radio galaxy, Pictor A. We will also obtain a 70 micron image of the eastern hot spot to accompany our existing 24 micron image. When supersonic jets launched by an active galactic nucleus encounter the intergalactic medium, they form bow shocks. Relativistic electrons within this region are re-accelerated by compressed magnetic fields, which produces strong synchrotron emission. These hot spots represent important laboratories for high-energy physics, and considerable effort has been made to understand their structures and energy distributions. Changes in slope of the hot spot spectral energy distribution (SED) are directly related to the particle energy distribution and the magnetic field strength, and typically a hot spot SED appears to have a single break in slope. Based on extrapolations from the radio and optical wavelengths, the break appears to occur in the mid-infrared, but to date there are no mid-to-far infrared measurements of hot spots in radio lobes. We seek to remedy this situation by observing one of the rare radio galaxies where the angular extent of the lobes allows the hot spots to be imaged at both 24 and 70 microns. The MIPS observations will enable the tightest constraints yet available to be placed upon the electron energy distributions within the hot spots of Pictor A. Our results will also help inform studies of other hot spots that cannot be measured at 70 microns.
Hines Dean
Rieke George
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