Radio/Optical Overlay Radio Galaxy 3C31

This image shows the optical and radio morphology of the radio galaxy 3C31 (NGC 383), the dominant galaxy of a prominent chain of galaxies. In this image, red colors depict radio emission measured with the VLA, and blue colors depict the optical emission from starlight. This system is a powerful radio source, with conical inner jets developing into wiggling jets and irregularly shaped plumes, which stretch to a distance of 300 kpc from the center of the galaxy (980,000 light years, for a Hubble constant of 100 km/s/Mpc). The left-hand image shows the large-scale morphology of the radio jet and the surrounding optical field (optical image from the Digitized Sky Survey), while the right-hand image shows the center of the galaxy with its conical radio jets. The optical image is an HST WFPC2 image, and shows prominent dust features in the host galaxy. The radio emission is due to relativistic streams of high energy particles generated by the radio source at the center of the radio galaxy. Astronomers believe that the jets are fueled by material accreting onto a super-massive black hole. The high energy particles are shot into extragalactic space at speeds approaching the speed of light, where they eventually balloon into massive radio plumes.

The left-hand image is a VLA 21cm image at 5.5 arcsec resolution superposed on Digitized Palomar Sky Survey E print. The right-hand image is a VLA 3.6cm radio image at 0.25 arcsec resolution superposed on Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 image. This galaxy is a FR I (plumed) radio galaxy at z=0.0169 (51/h Mpc, H = 100h km/s/Mpc), and has a dusty elliptical host galaxy.

Legacy Astronomical Images

NRAO/AUI/NSF does not hold full copyright for this image. Contact the archivist for details.

Legacy Astronomical Image

3C31

Alan Bridle, Robert Laing

Very Large Array (VLA)

HST

1998-00-00

continuum

X

3.6 cm

8.4 GHz

RA 1:7:24.960, Dec: 32:24:45.200 (J2000)

0.200000 x 0.400000 degrees

Active Galactic Nuclei Series

Quasars Unit