Early Australian Optical and Radio Observations of Centaurus A

Robertson, Peter; Cozens, Glen; Orchiston, Wayne; Slee, Bruce; Wendt, Harry

doi:10.1071/as09071

Cited by 15 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…See Israel (1998) and Gardner & Whiteoak (1966) for comprehensive scientific reviews and interesting historical perspectives. A contemporary overview of recent work can also be found in the following series of papers; Woodley & Gómez 2010;Struve et al 2010;Quillen et al 2010;Robertson et al 2010;Steinle 2010;Clay et al 2010;Neumayer 2010;Harris et al 2010;Morganti 2010;Harris 2010;Kachelrieß et al 2010;Burtscher et al 2010. ilana.feain@csiro.au Centaurus A is a Fanaroff-Riley class I (Fanaroff & Riley 1974) radio galaxy with a radio luminosity of L 1.4GHz = 2.3 × 10 24 W Hz −1 ; Cooper et al (1965). Its radio emission is complex and highly structured on all scales; see, for example, radio continuum montages in Figure 1 of Morganti et al (1999) or Figure 11 of Burns et al (1983).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

THE RADIO CONTINUUM STRUCTURE OF CENTAURUS A AT 1.4 GHz

Feain

Cornwell

Ekers

et al. 2011

ApJ

105

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A 45 deg 2 radio continuum imaging campaign of the nearest radio galaxy, Centaurus A, is reported. Using the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Parkes 64 m radio telescope at 1.4 GHz, the spatial resolution of the resultant image is ∼600 pc (∼ 50 ), resolving the 500 kpc giant radio lobes with approximately five times better physical resolution compared to any previous image, and making this the most detailed radio continuum image of any radio galaxy to date. In this paper, we present these new data and discuss briefly some of the most interesting morphological features that we have discovered in the images. The two giant outer lobes are highly structured and considerably distinct. The southern part of the giant northern lobe naturally extends out from the nothern middle lobe with uniformly north-streaming emission. The well known northern loop is resolved into a series of semi regular shells with a spacing of approximately 25 kpc. The northern part of the giant northern lobe also contains identifiable filaments and partial ring structures. As seen in previous single dish images at lower angular resolution, the giant southern lobe is not physically connected to the core at radio wavelengths. Almost the entirety of the giant southern lobe is resolved into a largely chaotic and mottled structure which appears considerably different (morphologically) to the diffuse regularity of the northern lobe. We report the discovery of a vertex and a vortex near the western boundary of the southern lobe; two striking, high surface-brightness features that are named based on their morphology and not their dynamics (which are presently unkown). The vortex and vertex are modelled as re-accelerated lobe emission due to shocks from the AGN itself or from the passage of a dwarf elliptical galaxy through lobe. Preliminary polarimetric and spectral index studies support a plasma reacceleration model and could explain the origin of the Faraday rotation structure detected in the southern lobe. In addition, there are a series of low surface brightness wisps detected around the edges of both the giant lobes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

THE RADIO CONTINUUM STRUCTURE OF CENTAURUS A AT 1.4 GHz

Feain

Cornwell

Ekers

et al. 2011

ApJ

105

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“…Permission to observe was approved by Radiophysics Chief Bowen (1911-1991: Hanbury Brown et al [276]), but this was apparently unbeknown to the Parkes Director Bolton. A historical article on Centaurus-A can be found in Robertson et al [283], with more recent results in Davids et al [284], and future studies of cosmic magnetism reviewed in Heald et al [285].…”

Section: -1965mentioning

confidence: 99%

History of Astronomy in Australia: Big-Impact Astronomy from World War II until the Lunar Landing (1945–1969)

Graham

Kenyon

Bull³

et al. 2021

Galaxies

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Radio astronomy commenced in earnest after World War II, with Australia keenly engaged through the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. At this juncture, Australia’s Commonwealth Solar Observatory expanded its portfolio from primarily studying solar phenomena to conducting stellar and extragalactic research. Subsequently, in the 1950s and 1960s, astronomy gradually became taught and researched in Australian universities. However, most scientific publications from this era of growth and discovery have no country of affiliation in their header information, making it hard to find the Australian astronomy articles from this period. In 2014, we used the then-new Astrophysics Data System (ADS) tool Bumblebee to overcome this challenge and track down the Australian-led astronomy papers published during the quarter of a century after World War II, from 1945 until the lunar landing in 1969. This required knowledge of the research centres and facilities operating at the time, which are briefly summarised herein. Based on citation counts—an objective, universally-used measure of scientific impact—we report on the Australian astronomy articles which had the biggest impact. We have identified the top-ten most-cited papers, and thus also their area of research, from five consecutive time-intervals across that blossoming quarter-century of astronomy. Moreover, we have invested a substantial amount of time researching and providing a small tribute to each of the 62 scientists involved, including several trail-blazing women. Furthermore, we provide an extensive list of references and point out many interesting historical connections and anecdotes.

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“…Bains et al 2009;Robertson et al 2010;Waite et al 2011) would have all contributed to those papers, while the lead-author will have likely performed the bulk of the work. Figure 3 shows the normalized citation count (a sorting option within ADS in which each article's total citation count is divided by the number of contributing authors), and an individuals total citation count when they are the lead-author (achieved by placing the carat symbol,^, in front of an author's name within the ADS web-form).…”

Section: The Citation Datamentioning

confidence: 99%