3C 390.3

B1845+797

Basic Data
S178 Alpha FR Class ID Spectrum Best z mag. LAS lg P178 D
51.80.75IICD Gal0.0569R = 14.64 229.0025.41 229.2

Image:


Size: 262.5 × 262.5 arcsec²
LUT: Logarithmic
Beam: 2.8 arcsec
Frequency: 1565 MHz
Method: CLEAN/VTESSÕ˜ÿ>2.8
Telescope: VLA A+B+C
Credits: Leahy & Perley (1995)

3C 390.3 serves as several prototypes rolled into one. It is one of the nearest examples of a classical double DRAGN, and shows one of the definitive double hotspots in the NW lobe. It is also one of the best-studied Broad-Line Radio Galaxies, essentially a nearby quasar (c.f. 3C 382). Its optical spectrum shows one of the best examples of twin-peaked broad-line emission, which is likely to be produced by the outer regions of an accretion disc in the centre of the AGN. VLBI observations of the nucleus (Alef et al. 1988, 1996) reveal a superluminal jet towards the NW, in the same direction as a very faint large-scale jet found by Leahy & Perley (1995), (which is not clearly visible in the intermediate-resolution image shown here). The jet feeds into the recessed, compact component of the double hotspot, which is connected to the outer component by a much brighter jet segment.

All the data is consistent with the DRAGN making a fairly small angle (20° - 30°) to the line of sight, meaning that the nearer (NW) side is seen around 2 million years later than the far side, just because the light from the far side has further to travel. Leahy & Perley speculate that many of the differences between the two sides could be caused by this time lag, with the contrasting hotspots in the two lobes showing two different stages of the impact on the lobe boundary of a particularly powerful pulse of jet emission.


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Page created: 2009 Apr 2 14:16:43
J. P. Leahy
jpl@jb.man.ac.uk