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Creator:Legacy Astronomical Images Series:Active Galactic Nuclei Series Unit:Quasars Unit Type:Legacy Astronomical Image |
Description:VLBI images of the distant gamma-ray-emitting quasar 1633+382 (also known as 4C38.41), at a distance of more than 10 billion light years, made from data acquired on 29 July 1997. The images show the inner 100 light years of a relativistic jet of material emanating from near the supermassive black hole that fuels the quasar. The left-hand image was made using the VLBA only, while the right-hand image is made from the same VLBA data, but with the addition of data from the orbiting HALCA radio telescope (both images are to the same scale). The addition of the space data improves the resolution of fine detail, and shows that the inner part of the jet clearly breaks up into two separable components. Images like this improve our understanding of the process by which supermassive black holes create relativistic jets of material that simultaneously emit radiation all the way from gamma rays to radio waves. [show more]
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