OPTICAL PROPER MOTION MEASUREMENTS OF THE M87 JET: NEW RESULTS FROM THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

Thumbnail Image

Files

1308.4633.pdf (661.53 KB)

Links to Files

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2041-8205/774/2/L21

Permanent Link

10.1088/2041-8205/774/2/l21
 http://hdl.handle.net/11603/19496

Collections

UMBC Physics Department
UMBC Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET)

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2013-08-22

Type of Work

journal articles preprints
Text

Department

Program

Citation of Original Publication

Eileen T. Meyer et al., OPTICAL PROPER MOTION MEASUREMENTS OF THE M87 JET: NEW RESULTS FROM THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 774, Number 2, doi: 10.1088/2041-8205/774/2/l21

Rights

This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
© 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Subjects

Abstract

We report new results from a Hubble Space Telescope archival program to study proper motions in the optical jet of the nearby radio galaxy M87. Using over 13 yr of archival imaging, we reach accuracies below 0.1c in measuring the apparent velocities of individual knots in the jet. We confirm previous findings of speeds up to 4.5c in the inner 6'' of the jet, and report new speeds for optical components in the outer part of the jet. We find evidence of significant motion transverse to the jet axis on the order of 0.6c in the inner jet features, and superluminal velocities parallel and transverse to the jet in the outer knot components, with an apparent ordering of velocity vectors possibly consistent with a helical jet pattern. Previous results suggested a global deceleration over the length of the jet in the form of decreasing maximum speeds of knot components from HST-1 outward, but our results suggest that superluminal speeds persist out to knot C, with large differentials in very nearby features all along the jet. We find significant apparent accelerations in directions parallel and transverse to the jet axis, along with evidence for stationary features in knots D, E, and I. These results are expected to place important constraints on detailed models of kiloparsec-scale relativistic jets.