| PKS 0637-752: an x-ray view of the quasar | 15/08/1999 | ||
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These images show PKS 0637-752 as viewed by radio and x-ray telescopes. PKS 0637-72 is so distant that we see it as it was 6 billion years ago. It is a luminous quasar that radiates with the power of 10 trillion suns from a region smaller than our solar system. | ||
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| Image Credit: NASA, CXC, SAO | |||
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| These
images show PKS 0637-752 as viewed by radio and x-ray telescopes. PKS 0637-72
is so distant that we see it as it was 6 billion years ago. It is a luminous
quasar that radiates with the power of 10 trillion suns from a region smaller
than our solar system. The source of this prodigious energy is believed
to be a supermassive black hole. Radio observations of PKS 0637-752 show
that it has an extended radio jet that stretches across several hundred
thousand light years. Chandra's x-ray image made with the Advanced CCD Imaging
Spectrometer (ACIS) reveals a powerful x-ray jet extending more than 200,000
light years into intergalactic space that is probably due to a beam of extremely
high-energy particles. The discovery of the x-ray jet is important because the power radiated by the x-ray jet is much greater than that of the radio jet. Any theory of jets must take into account the severe energy requirements imposed by the size and power of the x-ray jet. |
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