Media Information
 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Title:
3C175: Quasar Cannon
Explanation:
3C175 is not only a quasar, it is a galaxy-fueled particle cannon. Visible as the central dot is quasar [ http://oposite.stsc…] 3C175, the active center of a galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] so distant [ http://isaac.explor…] that the light we see from it was emitted when the Earth [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] was just forming [ http://www.astro.ps…]. The above image [ http://www.cv.nrao.…] was recorded in radio waves [ http://imagine.gsfc…] by an array of house-sized telescopes called the Very Large Array [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] (VLA). Shooting out from 3C175 is a thin jet [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] of protons [ http://hyperphysics…] and electrons [ http://www.aip.org/…] traveling near the speed of light [ http://www.what-is-…] that is over one million light-years [ http://chandra.harv…] long. The jet [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] acts like a particle cannon [ http://www.pbs.org/…] and bores through gas cloud in its path. How this jet [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] forms and why it is so narrow remain topics of current [ http://adsabs.harva…] research [ http://adsabs.harva…].
Credit and Copyright:
Alan Bridle [ http://www.cv.nrao.…] (NRAO Charlottesville [ http://www.cv.nrao.…]) VLA [ http://www.aoc.nrao…], NRAO [ http://www.nrao.edu/], NSF [ http://www.nsf.gov/]
keyword:
quasar
keyword:
jet
keyword:
particle beam
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_where:
Washington, D.C.
facet_what:
Earth
facet_what:
VLA
facet_what:
USERS
facet_what:
Very Large Array
facet_what:
Beam
facet_what:
Advanced Communication Technology Satellite (ACTS)
original url:
http://antwrp.gsfc.…
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap010905

3C175: Quasar Cannon
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