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N. E. Gugliucci (Lycoming College), G. B. Taylor (National Radio Astronomy Observatory), A. B. Peck (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), M. Giroletti (Istituto do Radioastronomia del CNR)
We present multi-epoch VLBA observations of Compact Symmetric Objects (CSOs) from the COINS sample (CSOs Observed In the Northern Sky). CSOs are a class of AGN with emission on both sides of the central engine and with small sizes (< 1 kpc) that are thought to be due to their youth. Their ages are derived from the motions of the hotspots as they move away from each other with time. Our new observations allow us to make estimates of, or place limits on, the kinematic ages for 12 sources with well-identified hot spots. This study significantly increases the number of CSOs with well-determined ages or limits. The age distribution is found to be sharply peaked under 500 years and within a range from 240 to 3000 years, suggesting that many CSOs die young, or are episodic in nature, and very few survive to evolve into FR~II sources like Cygnus~A. Jet components are found to have higher velocities than hot spots, which is consistent with their movement down cleared channels. We also present the first detections of significant polarization in two CSOs, J0000+4054 (2.1%) and J1826+1831 (8.8%). In both cases the polarized emission is found in jet components on the stronger side of the center of activity.
This research was part of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Socorro, New Mexico.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://student1.lycoming.edu/~gugnico/research.html. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: gugnico@lycoming.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.