Apparent Superluminal Motion in 3C279 |
 | Minimum credit line: Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI
(for details, see .
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Superluminal motion in quasar 3C279 is shown in a "movie"
mosaic of five radio images made over seven years. The stationary core is the
bright red spot to the left of each image. The observed location of the
rightmost blue-green blob moved about 25 light years from 1991 to 1998, hence
the changes appear to an observer to be faster than the speed of light or
"superluminal". The motion is not really faster than light, the measured speed is due to light-travel-time effects for a source moving near the speed of light almost directly toward the observer. The blue-green blob is part of a jet
pointing within 2 degrees to our line of sight, and moving at a true speed of
0.997 times the speed of light. These five images are part of a larger set of
twenty-eight images made with the VLBA and other radio telescopes from 1991 to
1997 to study the detailed properties of this energetic quasar.
Investigator(s): Ann Wehrle, et al. Image by Glenn Piner. This image is available in the following downloadable versions:
- 402 x 600
- 700 x 906
- 925 x 1197
If you would like to obtain a higher resolution version of this image,
please contact .
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Telescope
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VLBA and other radio telescopes
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Date of Observation
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1998-00-00
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Type of Observation
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Continuum Observations
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Band
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K
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Wavelength
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1.2 cm
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Frequency
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22 GHz
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Center of Image
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RA: 12:56:11.17, Dec: -5:47:21.52 (J2000)
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- Astronomical database entries for 3C279
- Query for images of 3C279
- Query for more 3C279 data
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