High resolution image can learn about active galaxies – La Voz del Interior

An international collaboration between 15 terrestrial antennas and antenna space mission RadioAstron (the Russian Space Agency), in orbit around the Earth, has managed to capture the high resolution image of astronomy.

The study, led by researchers from the National Research Council (CSIC) at the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, provides new clues for the study of active galaxies.

This image It has been made possible by a technique called very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI by its acronym in English), which since 1974 allows multiple separate telescopes geographically work together, functioning as a telescope with a diameter equal to the maximum distance that separates.

When operating together, antennas function as a single telescope with a diameter equal to eight times the diameter of Earth, reports the CSIC in a press release.

Energy Objects

Thanks to this technology, it has been peer with “unmatched precision” the central regions of the object known as BL Lacertae, the active nucleus of a galaxy located 900 million years light and is powered by a black hole 200 million times the mass of our sun.

The active galactic nuclei are the most energetic objects in the universe and can emit continuously over 100 times the energy released by all the stars in a galaxy like ours.

black hole

These galaxies contain a supermassive black hole of up to billions of solar masses surrounded by a disk of gas and have the presence of relativistic jets (jets perpendicular to the disk subatomic particles traveling near the speed of light).

José Luis Gómez, the Institute of Astrophysics Andalusia, says it seems clear that the jets arise as a consequence of the fall of disc material to the central black hole, but still largely unknown how the particle beam is formed and how it is accelerated to nearly the speed of light .

“We know, however, that the magnetic field plays a key role,” adds the researcher, who publishes the conclusions of the paper in The Astrophysical Journal.

The hypothesis predominant argues that, due to the rotation of the black hole and the disk, the magnetic field lines are “rolled up” and form a helical structure that confines and accelerates the particles forming the jets.

Active cores

The study of BL Lacertae provides important thing for confirmation of this scenario, as it has yielded the first direct evidence for the existence of a helical magnetic field scale on a core of an active galaxy.

“The resolution provided by RadioAstron allows us a unique insight into the innermost core assets, where most of its energy is produced regions,” says Yuri Kovalev, researcher Astro Space Center and scientific director of the RadioAstron mission.