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B.G. Piner (JPL), P.G. Edwards (ISAS), H. Hirabayashi (ISAS), J.E.J. Lovell (ATNF), A.P. Marscher (Boston Univ.), S.C. Unwin (JPL), A.E. Wehrle (JPL), W. Xu (IPAC), A.C. Zook (Pomona College)
We present results obtained from monitoring the parsec-scale structure of the relativistic jet in 3C~279 with VLBI. We present highlights of both our high-frequency Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) monitoring campaign at 22 and 43 GHz from 1991 to 1997, and our VLBI Space Observatory Programme (VSOP) monitoring campaign at 1.6 and 5 GHz in 1998 and 1999. Speeds have been measured for several new components detected in the high-frequency monitoring. One component presently 3-4 mas from the core has been extremely long-lived and has followed a curved trajectory out from the core. Single epoch VSOP observations made in 1998 during the VSOP First Announcement of Opportunity (AO1) showed brightness temperatures as high as 5\times1012 K, and allowed a spectral index map to be constructed using the VSOP image at 1.6 GHz and the ground-only image at 5 GHz. We present these AO1 results along with preliminary analyses of the first four of eight 3C~279 observations scheduled during the VSOP Second Announcement of Opportunity (AO2). Motion of inner jet components measured from these AO2 images will be discussed.
We gratefully acknowledge the VSOP Project, which is led by the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science in cooperation with many organizations and radio telescopes around the world. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. This research was performed in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract to NASA.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: B.G.Piner@jpl.nasa.gov