NRAO: National Radio Astronomy Observatory

About this Image

This image shows the radio morphology of the radio galaxy 3C31 (NGC 383), the dominant galaxy of a prominent chain of galaxies. This system is a powerful radio source, with conical inner jets developing into distorted plumes, which stretch to a distance of 300 kpc from the center of the galaxy (980,000 light years, for a Hubble constant of 100 km/s/Mpc). The radio emission is due to relativistic streams of high energy particles generated by the radio source at 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 shot into extragalactic space at speeds approaching the speed of light, where they eventually balloon into massive radio plumes.

Investigator(s):  Robert Laing, Alan Bridle, Richard Perley, Luigina Feretti, Gabriele Giovannini, and Paola Parma

Alternate Resolutions

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This image is available in the following downloadable versions:

• 360 x 576 color JPEG
• 563 x 900 color JPEG
• 2252 x 3600 color TIFF

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

For More Information

• Visit related website http://images.nrao.edu/AGN/Radio_Galaxies/257
• 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	1996-00-00
Type of Observation	Continuum Observations
Band	L
Wavelength	20 cm
Frequency	1.4 GHz
Center of Image	RA: 01:07:24.96, Dec: 32:24:45.20 (J2000)
Field of View	0.2000 x 0.4000 degrees
Technical Caption	FR I (plumed) radio galaxy at z=0.0169. VLA 1.4 GHz image at 5.5 arcsec resolution.



Astronomical database entries for 3C31
• Query NED for images of 3C31
• Query SIMBAD for more 3C31 data

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