ASCA Observations of Blazars

Abstract

During the last years it has become evident that blazar class of AGN emit a lot of energy in the gamma-ray regime. It is generally thought that the non-thermal emission from blazars, observed from radio to GeV/TeV 7-rays, is radiation of very energetic particles via both synchrotron and Compton processes. This underlines the importance of high-energy emission for models of the blazar class of active galactic nuclei. Most of the gamma-bright AGN are variable, and flares with time scales as short as a day have been observed. This suggests that the site of gamma-ray emission is very compact and situated in a fluid which moves relativistically at a small angle towards the observer. It is generally assumed that the emission originates from the jet of these objects.