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D. E. Harris (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), J. A. Biretta (STScI), W. Junor (LANL), E. S. Perlman (U. Maryland), W. B. Sparks (STScI), A. S. Wilson (U. Maryland)
We monitored the M87 jet with the ACIS-S detector on Chandra with 5 observations between 2002 Jan and 2002 Jul. Our goal was to determine the presence and degree of variability in morphology, intensity, and spectral parameters. We find strong variability of the core and HST-1 (the knot lying 0.8\prime\prime from the core). These observations were designed to constrain the X-ray emission process: whereas synchrotron emission would necessitate the presence of extremely high energy electrons with a half-life of a few years or less, inverse Compton emission from a relativistic jet would arise from very low energy electrons with very long half-lives. Currently, all indications point to a synchrotron process for the X-ray jet emission from M87.
This work was supported by NASA contract NAS8-39073 and grant GO2-3144X.
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: harris@cfa.harvard.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34, #4
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.