Highly collimated radio jets discovered around galaxy NGC 2663

Tomasz Nowakowski is a member of the physics.org community.

Highly collimated radio jets have been found around a nearby radio galaxy. We can improve our knowledge about this galaxy and its surroundings by using these jets. On arXiv.org, the finding was detailed.

There is a lot of radio waves coming from the central core of the radio galaxies. Black holes in the center of the galaxies produce high-energy jets visible in the radio spectrum, which accelerate charged particles to high speeds.

At a distance of 93 million light years away, there is an elliptical galaxy with a disk. It has a compact central radio source and is thought to have an active AGN. Many of the properties of NGC 2663 have not been known since it was discovered in 1886.

In order to shed more light on the nature of this galaxy, a group of astronomer led by Velibor Velovi of Western Sydney University in Australia have conducted a multi-wavelength study.

The researchers combine multiwavelength data: radio observations by the MWA,ASKAP and ATCA, and X-ray data from Chandra, Swift and SRG/eROSITA

There is a large and massive elliptical galaxy with a stellar mass of more than 500 billion solar mass, according to the observations. According to the study, there are two oppositely directed radio jets that are over 43 minutes across the sky. One of the largest radio galaxies is located in the vicinity of the universe.

The opening angle of the radio jets is about 30 degrees in the innermost region. They maintain a constant width after the initial increase in width. The southern jet has an initial flare as it leaves its host universe.

There are at least three regions in the southern jet where the jet increases in brightness. Similar features are found in other AGN jets that are collimation shocks. If the jet becomes cylindrical, traveling with an approximately fixed width, and recollimation takes place when an already collimated jet narrows, it is possible for collimation to occur.

There is at least one example of narrowing and simultaneous brightening of the jet shown by the southern jet. It is possible that this is an indication of recollimation of the jet. The scale is consistent with a slow jet in a low pressure environment.

The jet's variable power could explain the observations of the authors of the paper. The past activity of the source is recorded in the jet's brightness. They don't know if this will produce a narrower region of the jet.

More information: Velibor Velović et al, Collimation of the kiloparsec-scale radio jets in NGC 2663. arXiv:2207.06713v1 [astro-ph.GA], arxiv.org/abs/2207.06713

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