Astrophysical jet

The starburst galaxy Centaurus A, with its plasma jets extending over a million light years, is considered as the closest active radio galaxy to Earth. The 870-micron submillimetre data, from LABOCA on APEX, are shown in orange. X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory are shown in blue. Visible light data from the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2 m telescope located at La Silla, Chile, show the background stars and the galaxy's characteristic dust lane in close to "true colour".

An astrophysical jet is an astronomical phenomenon where outflows of ionised matter are emitted as extended beams along the axis of rotation.[1] When this greatly accelerated matter in the beam approaches the speed of light, astrophysical jets become relativistic jets as they show effects from special relativity.

The formation and powering of astrophysical jets are highly complex phenomena that are associated with many types of high-energy astronomical sources. They likely arise from dynamic interactions within accretion disks, whose active processes are commonly connected with compact central objects such as black holes, neutron stars or pulsars. One explanation is that tangled magnetic fields are organised to aim two diametrically opposing beams away from the central source by angles only several degrees wide (c. > 1%).[2] Jets may also be influenced by a general relativity effect known as frame-dragging.[3]

Most of the largest and most active jets are created by supermassive black holes (SMBH) in the centre of active galaxies such as quasars and radio galaxies or within galaxy clusters.[4] Such jets can exceed millions of parsecs in length.[2] Other astronomical objects that contain jets include cataclysmic variable stars, X-ray binaries and gamma-ray bursts (GRB). Jets on a much smaller scale (~parsecs) may be found in star forming regions, including T Tauri stars and Herbig–Haro objects; these objects are partially formed by the interaction of jets with the interstellar medium. Bipolar outflows may also be associated with protostars,[5] or with evolved post-AGB stars, planetary nebulae and bipolar nebulae.

  1. ^ Beall, J. H. (2015). "A Review of Astrophysical Jets" (PDF). Proceedings of Science: 58. Bibcode:2015mbhe.confE..58B. doi:10.22323/1.246.0058. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  2. ^ a b Kundt, W. (2014). "A Uniform Description of All the Astrophysical Jets" (PDF). Proceedings of Science: 58. Bibcode:2015mbhe.confE..58B. doi:10.22323/1.246.0058. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  3. ^ Miller-Jones, James (April 2019). "A rapidly changing jet orientation in the stellar-mass black-hole system V404 Cygni" (PDF). Nature. 569 (7756): 374–377. arXiv:1906.05400. Bibcode:2019Natur.569..374M. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1152-0. PMID 31036949. S2CID 139106116.
  4. ^ Beall, J. H (2014). "A review of Astrophysical Jets". Acta Polytechnica CTU Proceedings. 1 (1): 259–264. Bibcode:2014mbhe.conf..259B. doi:10.14311/APP.2014.01.0259.
  5. ^ "Star sheds via reverse whirlpool". Astronomy.com. 27 December 2007. Retrieved 26 May 2015.