Research report 2012 - Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy
A detailed view of the fast outflows produced by supermassive black holes
Authors
Savolainen, Tuomas
Departments
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn
Summary
Supermassive black holes can power fast, well-collimated jets of magnetized plasma that transport energy from the black hole – accretion disk system to distances of hundreds of thousands of light years. Many physical processes governing the jets are not well-understood including their formation, stability, magnetic field structure, and energy dissipation. Long-term monitoring of a large sample of active galactic nuclei jets using ultra-high resolution radio interferometry is bringing us closer to the answers to these questions.