Abstract
New observations of the jet in 3C 273 support and refine our earlier interpretation that (i) the mapped jet is 106±0.3 yr old and grows at 0.6 to 0.75 times the speed of light, at an average angle θ of (20 ± 10)‡ with respect to the line of sight; (ii) its twin is not seen yet because arriving signals were emitted when it was some 100.6±0.2 times younger; (iii) the fluid moving in the jet is an extremely relativistice ±-pair plasma, of bulk Lorentz factor γ >102; (iv) the beam has swung in projection through some 10‡; and (v) the small excursions (wiggles) of the jet around its average propagation direction result from a self-stabilizing interaction with the nonstatic ambient plasma. All other interpretations of which we are aware depend heavily on the (‘beaming’) assumption that the jet material radiates isotropically in some (comoving) Lorentz frame, an assumption which we consider unrealistic.
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Kundt, W., Gopal-Krishna The jet of the Quasar 3C 273. J Astrophys Astron 7, 225–236 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02714211
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02714211