Jet - cloud interactions

This is an image of a highly excited gas cloud some 10kpc from the nucleus of the radio galaxy PKS2152-699. It was taken with the WFPC2 on HST in the ultraviolet continuum (F300W).

In addition to the ionization of extended gas by high energy photons from the active nucleus, the radio jets can interact with material in the surroundings of the galaxy and produce a range of phenomena which need to be understood in some detail if we are to interpret the data from high redshift active galaxies.

We have projects to investigate these interactions using a number of different observational techniques from X-ray to radio. (The linked images show PKS2152-699 taken with the ROSAT HRI and with the Australia Telescope Compact Array at 6cm). The physical processes involved in these interactions include shocks, scattering of - and photoionization by - beamed photons from the AGN.

Available datasets come from HST, ISO, ROSAT, ATCA, IUE, ESO/NTT and other optical/IR telescopes.

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