Radio Galaxy 3C296 Radio/Optical Superposition

This is a false-color image of the radio galaxy 3C296, associated with the elliptical galaxy NGC5532. Blue colors show the distribution of stars, made from an image from the Digitized Second Palomar Sky Survey, and red colors show the radio radiation as imaged by the VLA, measured at a wavelength of 20cm. Several other galaxies are seen in this image, but are not directly related to the radio source. The radio emission is from relativistic streams of high energy particles generated by the radio source in 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 confined to remarkably well collimated jets, and are shot into extragalactic space at speeds approaching the speed of light, where they eventually balloon into massive radio lobes. The plumes in 3C296 measure 150 kpc or 480,000 light years edge-to-edge diameter (for a Hubble constant of 100 km/s/Mpc).

FR I (plumed) radio galaxy at z=0.0237. VLA 1.45 GHz image at 4.9 arcsec resolution.

Legacy Astronomical Images

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

Legacy Astronomical Image

3C296

J.P. Leahy, R.A. Perley.

Very Large Array (VLA)

Digitized Second Palomar Sky Survey

1987-12-02

continuum

L

20 cm

1.4 GHz

RA 14:16:53.200, Dec: 10:48:11.000 (J2000)

0.133300 x 0.133300 degrees

Active Galactic Nuclei Series

Radio Galaxies Unit