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Post Info TOPIC: Quasar GB 1428+4217
Blobrana


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RE: Quasar GB 1428+4217
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Record-Setting X-ray Jet Discovered

A jet of X-rays from a supermassive black hole 12.4 billion light years from Earth has been detected by NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory. This is the most distant X-ray jet ever observed and gives astronomers a glimpse into the explosive activity associated with the growth of supermassive black holes in the early universe.
The jet was produced by a quasar named GB 1428+4217, or GB 1428 for short. Giant black holes at the centers of galaxies can pull in matter at a rapid rate producing the quasar phenomenon. The energy released as particles fall toward the black hole generates intense radiation and powerful beams of high-energy particles that blast away from the black hole at nearly the speed of light. These particle beams can interact with magnetic fields or ambient photons to produce jets of radiation.
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Title: Discovery of a Kiloparsec Scale X-ray/Radio Jet in the z=4.72 Quasar GB 1428+4217
Authors: C. C. Cheung, L. Stawarz, A. Siemiginowska, D. Gobeille, J. F. C. Wardle, D. E. Harris, D. A. Schwartz

We report the discovery of a one-sided 3.6" (24 kpc, projected) long jet in the high-redshift, z=4.72, quasar GB 1428+4217 in new Chandra X-ray and VLA radio observations. This is the highest redshift kiloparsec-scale X-ray/radio jet known. Analysis of archival VLBI 2.3 and 8.6 GHz data reveal a faint one-sided jet extending out to ~200 parsecs and aligned to within ~30 deg of the Chandra/VLA emission. The 3.6" distant knot is not detected in an archival HST image, and its broad-band spectral energy distribution is consistent with an origin from inverse Compton scattering of cosmic microwave background photons for the X-rays. Assuming also equipartition between the radiating particles and magnetic field, the implied jet Lorentz factor is ~5. This is similar to the other two known z ~ 4 kpc-scale X-ray jet cases and smaller than typically inferred in lower-redshift cases. Although there are still but a few such very high-redshift quasar X-ray jets known, for an inverse Compton origin, the present data suggest that they are less relativistic on large-scales than their lower-redshift counterparts.

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