Deep Hubble space telescope ultraviolet imaging of the M87 jet

摘要

Near-ultraviolet imaging with HST offers the best possible spatial resolution currently available for optical/UV astronomical imaging. The giant elliptical galaxy M87 hosts one of the most spectacular, best studied and nearest (d=16 Mpc) galactic-scale relativistic (synchrotron emitting plasma) jets. We have extracted from the HST archive all 220 nm images of the jet of M87, taken with the STIS MAMA camera and co-added them to provide the deepest image ever at this wavelength. The combination of highest spatial resolution and long integration time, 42500 seconds, reveals a wealth of complex structure, knots, filaments and shocks. We compare this image with deep X-ray observations obtained with the Chandra X-ray telescope.