NRAO: National Radio Astronomy Observatory

About this Image

This is an unusual radio galaxy. It has double lobes with plume-like extensions. Astronomers believe that the jets are fueled by material accreting onto a super-massive black hole at the center of the host galaxy (not shown in this image). 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 overall size of this source is 104 kpc, and there is an abbreviated jet and counterjet.

Investigator(s):  Alan Bridle, Jacob Callcut, and Ed Fomalont

Alternate Resolutions

Help

This image is available in the following downloadable versions:

• 526 x 576 color JPEG
• 822 x 900 color JPEG
• 3288 x 3600 color TIFF

If you would like to obtain a higher resolution version of this image, please contact Pat Smiley.

For More Information

• Read the Journal article
• Visit related website http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~abridle/3c288.htm
• Up one level for more info on Radio_Galaxies
• For unfamiliar terms, visit the NRAO Radio Astronomy Glossary

Technical Data

Telescope	VLA
Date of Observation	1980-03-25
Type of Observation	Continuum Observations
Band	X
Wavelength	3.6 cm
Frequency	8.4 GHz
Center of Image	RA: 13:38:49.99, Dec: 38:51:9.50 (J2000)
Field of View	0.0070 x 0.0070 degrees
Technical Caption	Radio galaxy at z=0.246 (778/h Mpc, H = 100h km/s/Mpc). VLA 8.4 GHz image at 0.2 arcsec resolution.



Astronomical database entries for 3C288
• Query NED for images of 3C288
• Query SIMBAD for more 3C288 data

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