Quasar 3C 279

Movie (AVI format) of the evolution of the parsec-scale jet of the quasar 3C 279. 1 mas = 6.4 parsecs for a Hubble constant of 65 km/s/Mpc. The yellow contours show total intensity (starting at 90%, then 64%, 32%, 16%, ... of the peak), while the colored image corresponds to linearly polarized intensity. The red sticks show the direction of the electric vector; the magnetic field is perpendicular to the electric vector except perhaps in the most compact components, which might be opaque or subject to Faraday rotation. The graph on top shows in red the brightness (flux) of 2.4-10 keV X-rays as measured by RXTE, and in green the brightness (flux density) of visible light as measured at various observatories (see our X-ray page). The red circle gets larger or smaller as the X-rays get brighter or fainter, and the green circle does the same for the visible light.

The image of the jet is made with data from the VLBA at 43 GHz and the movie interpolates linearly between the 20 images. Notice the outer feature (elegantly termed a "blob" by experts), which moves steadily away from the unresolved stationary feature on the left (eastern) end, customarily called the "core." The section of the jet near the core starts out quite small and grows progressively during the movie. After the beginning of 1998, the motion in this section suddenly accelerates from about 5c to 13c! (We're currently trying to figure out the best model to explain how this happened.) After this point, several new knots are made each year, with each "birth" denoted by a blue arrow that then moves to the right and changes color as the feature moves down the jet and fades in brightness. The inner jet and the core have magnetic field directions that are nearly perpendicular to the jet direction, as expected for plane-wave shocks.

This movie was made by Svetlana Jorstad from data analyzed by her and Alan Marscher, in collaboration with T. Cawthorne, A. Stirling, M. Lister, W. Gear, J. Stevens, J.L. Gomez, D. Gabuzda, E.I. Robson, J.R. Forster, P. Smith, I. McHardy, M. Aller, T. Balonek, G. Tosti, M. Villata, and C. Raiteri.