Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The radio counter-jet of the QSO 3C 48

2005; EDP Sciences; Volume: 434; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1051/0004-6361

1432-0746

Wenxia Feng, Tao An, Xiaoyu Hong, Jun‐Hui Zhao, T. Venturi, Zhi-Qiang Shen, W. H. Wang,

Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations

We present multi-frequency radio observational results of the quasar 3C 48. The observations were carried out with the Very Large Array (VLA) at five frequencies, 0.33, 1.5, 4.8, 8.4, and 22.5 GHz, and with the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) at the two frequencies of 1.6 and 5 GHz. The source shows a one-sided jet to the north within 1´´, which then extends to the northeast and becomes diffuse. Two bright components (N2 and N3), containing most of the flux density, are present in the northern jet. The spectral index of the two components is and (). Our images show the presence of an extended structure surrounding component N2, suggestive of strong interaction between the jet and the interstellar medium (ISM) of the host galaxy. A steep-spectrum component, labelled S, located 0.25'' southwest to the flat-spectrum component which could be the core of 3C 48, is detected at a significance of >. Both the location and the steepness of the spectrum of component S suggest the presence of a counter-jet in 3C 48.