Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Superluminal motion
In astronomy, superluminal motion is the apparently faster-than-light motion seen in some radio galaxies, BL Lac objects, quasars, blazars and recently also in some galactic sources called microquasars. Bursts of energy moving out along the relativistic jets emitted from these objects can have a proper motion that appears greater than the speed of light. All of these sources are thought to contain a black hole, responsible for the ejection of mass at high velocities. Light echoes can also produce apparent superluminal motion.
Superluminal motion occurs as a special case of a more general phenomenon arising from the difference between the apparent speed of distant objects moving across the sky and their actual speed as measured at the source.
In tracking the movement of such objects across the sky, a calculation of their speed can be determined by a simple distance divided by time formula. If the distance of the object from the Earth is known and the angular speed of the object can be measured, then the speed can be calculated as:
But this calculation does not yield the actual speed of the object, as it fails to account for the fact that the speed of light is finite. When measuring the movement of distant objects across the sky, there is a large time delay between what has been observed and what has occurred, due to the large distance the light from the distant object has to travel to reach us. The error in the above calculation comes from the fact that when an object has a component of velocity directed towards the Earth, as the object moves closer to the Earth that time delay becomes smaller. This means that the apparent speed as calculated above is greater than the actual speed. Correspondingly, if the object is moving away from the Earth, the above calculation underestimates the actual speed.
This effect in itself does not generally lead to superluminal motion being observed. But when the actual speed of the object is close to the speed of light, the apparent speed can be calculated as greater than the speed of light, as a result of the above effect. As the actual speed of the object approaches the speed of light, the effect is most pronounced as the component of the velocity towards the Earth increases. This means that in most cases, 'superluminal' objects are travelling almost directly towards the Earth. However it is not strictly necessary for this to be the case, and superluminal motion can still be observed in objects with appreciable velocities not directed towards the Earth.
Superluminal motion is most often observed in two opposing jets emanating from the core of a star or black hole. In this case, one jet is moving away from and one towards the Earth. If Doppler shifts are observed in both sources, the velocity and the distance can be determined independently of other observations.
As early as 1983, at the "superluminal workshop" held at Jodrell Bank Observatory, referring to the seven then-known superluminal jets,
Schilizzi ... presented maps of arc-second resolution [showing the large-scale outer jets] ... which ... have revealed outer double structure in all but one (3C 273) of the known superluminal sources. An embarrassment is that the average projected size [on the sky] of the outer structure is no smaller than that of the normal radio-source population.
Hub AI
Superluminal motion AI simulator
(@Superluminal motion_simulator)
Superluminal motion
In astronomy, superluminal motion is the apparently faster-than-light motion seen in some radio galaxies, BL Lac objects, quasars, blazars and recently also in some galactic sources called microquasars. Bursts of energy moving out along the relativistic jets emitted from these objects can have a proper motion that appears greater than the speed of light. All of these sources are thought to contain a black hole, responsible for the ejection of mass at high velocities. Light echoes can also produce apparent superluminal motion.
Superluminal motion occurs as a special case of a more general phenomenon arising from the difference between the apparent speed of distant objects moving across the sky and their actual speed as measured at the source.
In tracking the movement of such objects across the sky, a calculation of their speed can be determined by a simple distance divided by time formula. If the distance of the object from the Earth is known and the angular speed of the object can be measured, then the speed can be calculated as:
But this calculation does not yield the actual speed of the object, as it fails to account for the fact that the speed of light is finite. When measuring the movement of distant objects across the sky, there is a large time delay between what has been observed and what has occurred, due to the large distance the light from the distant object has to travel to reach us. The error in the above calculation comes from the fact that when an object has a component of velocity directed towards the Earth, as the object moves closer to the Earth that time delay becomes smaller. This means that the apparent speed as calculated above is greater than the actual speed. Correspondingly, if the object is moving away from the Earth, the above calculation underestimates the actual speed.
This effect in itself does not generally lead to superluminal motion being observed. But when the actual speed of the object is close to the speed of light, the apparent speed can be calculated as greater than the speed of light, as a result of the above effect. As the actual speed of the object approaches the speed of light, the effect is most pronounced as the component of the velocity towards the Earth increases. This means that in most cases, 'superluminal' objects are travelling almost directly towards the Earth. However it is not strictly necessary for this to be the case, and superluminal motion can still be observed in objects with appreciable velocities not directed towards the Earth.
Superluminal motion is most often observed in two opposing jets emanating from the core of a star or black hole. In this case, one jet is moving away from and one towards the Earth. If Doppler shifts are observed in both sources, the velocity and the distance can be determined independently of other observations.
As early as 1983, at the "superluminal workshop" held at Jodrell Bank Observatory, referring to the seven then-known superluminal jets,
Schilizzi ... presented maps of arc-second resolution [showing the large-scale outer jets] ... which ... have revealed outer double structure in all but one (3C 273) of the known superluminal sources. An embarrassment is that the average projected size [on the sky] of the outer structure is no smaller than that of the normal radio-source population.