Observational aspects of AGN jets at high energy

Jun Kataoka*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    For the last two decades, significant and dramatic progress has been made in understanding astrophysical jet sources, particularly in the X-ray and gamma-ray energy bands. For example, the Chandra X-ray observatory reveals a number of AGN jets extending from kpc to Mpc scales. More recently, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescopes launched in 2008 started monitoring the gamma-ray sky with excellent sensitivity of about ten times greater than that of EGRET onboard CGRO, and has detected more than 2, 000 sources (mostly AGNs) as of 2014. Moreover, Fermi-LAT has discovered gamma-ray emissions not only from blazars but from a dozen radio galaxies not previously known to emit gamma-rays. Closer to home, the Fermi-bubbles were discovered to extend 50 degrees above and below the Galactic center. These large scale diffuse gamma-ray structures are similar in structure to AGN lobes such as those seen in Cen A and provide evidence for past activity in our Galactic center. In this review, I will first summarize recent highlights of large scale jets in radio galaxies, specifically resolved by the Chandra X-ray observatory. Next I will move on to the gamma-ray sky to present some highlights from Fermi-LAT observations of "misaligned" blazars, namely radio galaxies. I will discuss a unification scheme connecting blazars and misaligned radio galaxies. In the last part, I will also briefly comment on recent multiband observations of the Fermi-bubble and possible impacts on the AGN jet physics in the near future.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1-11
    Number of pages11
    JournalProceedings of the International Astronomical Union
    Volume10
    Issue numberS313
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2014

    Keywords

    • Galaxies: active
    • Gamma rays: observations
    • Radio continuum: galaxies
    • X-rays: galaxies

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Medicine (miscellaneous)
    • Astronomy and Astrophysics
    • Nutrition and Dietetics
    • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
    • Space and Planetary Science

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Observational aspects of AGN jets at high energy'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this