Clemson: First Image of Jet Emerging from Colliding Galaxies

[bystander]

First-Ever Photographic Proof of Power-
Packed Jet Emerging from Colliding Galaxies
Clemson University | 2020 Apr 07

The Seyfert 1 galaxy, TXS 2116-077, (seen on the right) collides with another spiral-
shaped galaxy of similar mass, creating a relativistic jet in the TXS’s center. Both
galaxies have active galactic nuclei (AGN). Image Credit: Vaidehi Paliya

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A team of Clemson University College of Science researchers, in collaboration with international colleagues, has reported the first definitive detection of a relativistic jet emerging from two colliding galaxies — in essence, the first photographic proof that merging galaxies can produce jets of charged particles that travel at nearly the speed of light.

Furthermore, scientists had previously discovered that these jets could be found in elliptical-shaped galaxies, which can be formed in the merging of two spiral galaxies. Now, they have an image showing the formation of a jet from two younger, spiral-shaped galaxies.

“For the first time, we have found two spiral- or disk-shaped galaxies on path for a collision that have produced a nascent, baby jet that has just started its life at the center of one of the galaxies,” said Vaidehi Paliya ...

According to Ajello, others have already imaged galactic collisions many times. But he and his colleagues are the first to capture two galaxies merging where there is a fully formed jet pointing at us — albeit, a very young one, and thus not yet bright enough to blind us. ...

TXS 2116−077: A Gamma-Ray Emitting Relativistic Jet Hosted in a Galaxy Merger ~ Vaidehi S. Paliya et al

• Astrophysical Journal 892(2):133 (2020 Apr 01) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab754f
• arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:2004.02703 > 06 Apr 2020

[bystander]

Discovery of a Young Blazar Produced by a Merger of Two Galaxies
Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING) | 2020 Apr 14

The galaxy TXS 2116-077 (seen on the right) collides with another spiral-shaped galaxy of similar mass, creating a relativistic jet in TXS 2116-077's centre. Both galaxies have AGNs. Shown here is an image of the emission in the H-alpha line with superposed isophotes of the infrared emission in the J band. Also shown in black lines is the region where a spectrum was obtained with ISIS on the WHT and OSIRIS on the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). Credit: Paliya et al., 2020, ApJ

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A blazar is a particular type of active galactic nucleus (AGN) with a central supermassive black hole which emits a jet, a flux of highly energetic particles and radiation moving almost at the velocity of light, and which is aligned along the observer's line-of-sight. An international team of researchers has observed the birth of one of these objects for the first time by combining observations from several telescopes, among them the William Herschel Telescope (WHT).

As a point of reference, scientists believe all large galaxies have centrally located massive black holes, but only about one per cent of these have active nuclei. For example, our Milky Way's massive black hole is dormant. The emission from an AGN can often exceed that of the host galaxy, and originates from the central black hole accreting circumnuclear gas. But not all this gas is accreted onto the black hole; some gets accelerated and spewed out in the form of narrow, bi-polar jets. ...

Now, astronomers have imaged the formation of a jet from two younger, spiral-shaped galaxies, in the process of merging. In scientific terminology these young spiral galaxies containing jets are called Narrow Line Seyfert 1 gamma ray emitter galaxies (γ-NLSy1).

Each merging galaxy shows a supermassive black hole at its centre. The more massive of the two shows a very young jet, with an estimated age less than 15,000 years, whose existence can be attributed to the interacton between the galaxies, which started at least 500 million years ago. ...

Discovery of a young blazar produced by the merger of two galaxies
Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics (IAC) | 2020 Apr 07

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