Blazar

A blazar is an active galactic nucleus (AGN) with

a relativistic jet (a jet composed of ionized matter
traveling at nearly the speed of light) directed very
nearly towards an observer. Relativistic beaming
of electromagnetic radiation from the jet makes
blazars appear much brighter than they would be
if the jet were pointed in a direction away from
Earth.[1] Blazars are powerful sources of emission
across the electromagnetic spectrum and are
observed to be sources of high-energy gamma ray
photons. Blazars are highly variable sources, often
undergoing rapid and dramatic fluctuations in
brightness on short timescales (hours to days).
Some blazar jets appear to exhibit superluminal
motion, another consequence of material in the jet
traveling toward the observer at nearly the speed
of light.
The elliptical galaxy M87 emitting a relativistic jet, as
The blazar category includes BL Lac objects and seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. An active galaxy
optically violently variable (OVV) quasars. The is classified as a blazar when its jet is pointing close to
the line of sight. In the case of M87, because the angle
generally accepted theory is that BL Lac objects
between the jet and the line of sight is not small, its
are intrinsically low-power radio galaxies while
nucleus is not classified as a blazar, but rather as radio
OVV quasars are intrinsically powerful radio-loud galaxy.
quasars. The name "blazar" was coined in 1978
by astronomer Edward Spiegel to denote the
combination of these two classes.[2]

In visible-wavelength images, most blazars appear compact and pointlike, but high-resolution images reveal
that they are located at the centers of elliptical galaxies.[3]

Blazars are important topics of research in astronomy and high-energy astrophysics. Blazar research
includes investigation of the properties of accretion disks and jets, the central supermassive black holes and
surrounding host galaxies, and the emission of high-energy photons, cosmic rays, and neutrinos.

In July 2018, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory team traced a neutrino that hit its Antarctica-based detector
in September 2017 to its point of origin in a blazar 3.7 billion light-years away. This was the first time that a
neutrino detector was used to locate an object in space.[4][5][6]

Structure
Blazars, like all active galactic nuclei (AGN), are thought to be
powered by material falling into a supermassive black hole in the
core of the host galaxy. Gas, dust and the occasional star are
captured and spiral into this central black hole, creating a hot
accretion disk which generates enormous amounts of energy in the
form of photons, electrons, positrons and other elementary particles.
This region is relatively small, approximately 10−3 parsecs in size.

There is also a larger opaque toroid extending several parsecs from

the black hole, containing a hot gas with embedded regions of
higher density. These "clouds" can absorb and re-emit energy from
regions closer to the black hole. On Earth, the clouds are detected Sloan Digital Sky Survey image of
as emission lines in the blazar spectrum. blazar Markarian 421, illustrating the
bright nucleus and elliptical host
Perpendicular to the accretion disk, a pair of relativistic jets carries galaxy
highly energetic plasma away from the AGN. The jet is collimated
by a combination of intense magnetic fields and powerful winds
from the accretion disk and toroid. Inside the jet, high energy photons and particles interact with each other
and the strong magnetic field. These relativistic jets can extend as far as many tens of kiloparsecs from the
central black hole.

All of these regions can produce a variety of observed energy, mostly in the form of a nonthermal spectrum
ranging from very low-frequency radio to extremely energetic gamma rays, with a high polarization
(typically a few percent) at some frequencies. The nonthermal spectrum consists of synchrotron radiation in
the radio to X-ray range, and inverse Compton emission in the X-ray to gamma-ray region. A thermal
spectrum peaking in the ultraviolet region and faint optical emission lines are also present in OVV quasars,
but faint or non-existent in BL Lac objects.

Relativistic beaming
The observed emission from a blazar is greatly enhanced by relativistic effects in the jet, a process called
relativistic beaming. The bulk speed of the plasma that constitutes the jet can be in the range of 95%–99%
of the speed of light, although individual particles move at higher speeds in various directions.

The relationship between the luminosity emitted in the rest frame of the jet and the luminosity observed
from Earth depends on the characteristics of the jet. These include whether the luminosity arises from a
shock front or a series of brighter blobs in the jet, as well as details of the magnetic fields within the jet and
their interaction with the moving particles.

A simple model of beaming illustrates the basic relativistic effects connecting the luminosity in the rest
frame of the jet, Se, and the luminosity observed on Earth, So : So is proportional to Se × D2 , where D is the
doppler factor.

When considered in much more detail, three relativistic effects are involved:

Relativistic aberration contributes a factor of D2. Aberration is a consequence of special

relativity where directions which appear isotropic in the rest frame (in this case, the jet)
 appear pushed towards the direction of motion in the observer's frame (in this case, Earth).
Time dilation contributes a factor of D+1. This effect speeds up the apparent release of
energy. If the jet emits a burst of energy every minute in its own rest frame, this release would
be observed on Earth as much more frequent, perhaps every ten seconds.
Windowing can contribute a factor of D−1 and then works to decrease boosting. This
happens for a steady flow because there are then D fewer elements of fluid within the
observed window, as each element has been expanded by factor D. However, for a freely
propagating blob of material, the radiation is boosted by the full D+3.

Example
Consider a jet with an angle to the line of sight θ = 5° and a speed of 99.9% of the speed of light. The
luminosity observed from Earth is 70 times greater than the emitted luminosity. However, if θ is at the
minimum value of 0° the jet will appear 600 times brighter from Earth.

Beaming away
Relativistic beaming also has another critical consequence. The jet which is not approaching Earth will
appear dimmer because of the same relativistic effects. Therefore, two intrinsically identical jets will appear
significantly asymmetric. In the example given above any jet where θ > 35° will be observed on Earth as
less luminous than it would be from the rest frame of the jet.

A further consequence is that a population of intrinsically identical AGN scattered in space with random jet
orientations will look like a very inhomogeneous population on Earth. The few objects where θ is small will
have one very bright jet, while the rest will apparently have considerably weaker jets. Those where θ varies
from 90° will appear to have asymmetric jets.

This is the essence behind the connection between blazars and radio galaxies. AGN which have jets
oriented close to the line of sight with Earth can appear extremely different from other AGN even if they are
intrinsically identical.

Discovery
Many of the brighter blazars were first identified, not as powerful distant galaxies, but as irregular variable
stars in our own galaxy. These blazars, like genuine irregular variable stars, changed in brightness on
periods of days or years, but with no pattern.

The early development of radio astronomy had shown that there are many bright radio sources in the sky.
By the end of the 1950s, the resolution of radio telescopes was sufficient to identify specific radio sources
with optical counterparts, leading to the discovery of quasars. Blazars were highly represented among these
early quasars, and the first redshift was found for 3C 273, a highly variable quasar which is also a blazar.

In 1968, a similar connection was made between the "variable star" BL Lacertae and a powerful radio
source VRO 42.22.01.[7] BL Lacertae shows many of the characteristics of quasars, but the optical
spectrum was devoid of the spectral lines used to determine redshift. Faint indications of an underlying
galaxy—proof that BL Lacertae was not a star—were found in 1974.
The extragalactic nature of BL Lacertae was not a surprise. In 1972 a few variable optical and radio sources
were grouped together and proposed as a new class of galaxy: BL Lacertae-type objects. This terminology
was soon shortened to "BL Lacertae object", "BL Lac object" or simply "BL Lac". (The latter term can also
mean the original individual blazar and not the entire class.)

As of 2003, a few hundred BL Lac objects were known. One of the closest blazars is 2.5 billion light years
away.[8][9]

Current view
Blazars are thought to be active galactic nuclei, with relativistic jets oriented close to the line of sight with
the observer.

The special jet orientation explains the general peculiar characteristics: high observed luminosity, very rapid
variation, high polarization (compared to non-blazar quasars), and the apparent superluminal motions
detected along the first few parsecs of the jets in most blazars.

A Unified Scheme or Unified Model has become generally accepted, where highly variable quasars are
related to intrinsically powerful radio galaxies, and BL Lac objects are related to intrinsically weak radio
galaxies.[10] The distinction between these two connected populations explains the difference in emission
line properties in blazars.[11]

Other explanations for the relativistic jet/unified scheme approach which have been proposed include
gravitational microlensing and coherent emission from the relativistic jet. Neither of these explains the
overall properties of blazars. For example, microlensing is achromatic. That is, all parts of a spectrum would
rise and fall together. This is not observed in blazars. However, it is possible that these processes, as well as
more complex plasma physics, can account for specific observations or some details.

Examples of blazars include 3C 454.3, 3C 273, BL Lacertae, PKS 2155-304, Markarian 421, Markarian
501, 4C +71.07, PKS 0537-286 (QSO 0537-286) and S5 0014+81. Markarian 501 and S5 0014+81 are
also called "TeV Blazars" for their high energy (teraelectron-volt range) gamma-ray emission.

In July 2018, a blazar called TXS 0506+056[12] was identified as source of high-energy neutrinos by the
IceCube project.[5][6][13]

See also
Galaxy formation and evolution
Seyfert galaxy

Notes
1. Urry, C. M.; Padovani, P. (1995). "Unified Schemes for Radio-Loud Active Galactic Nuclei".
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 107: 803. arXiv:astro-ph/9506063 (htt
ps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9506063). Bibcode:1995PASP..107..803U (https://ui.adsabs.harva
 rd.edu/abs/1995PASP..107..803U). doi:10.1086/133630 (https://doi.org/10.1086%2F13363
0). S2CID 17198955 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:17198955).
2. Kellermann, Kenneth (2 October 1992). "Variability of Blazars". Science. 258 (5079): 145–
146. doi:10.1126/science.258.5079.145-a (https://doi.org/10.1126%2Fscience.258.5079.145
-a). PMID 17835899 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17835899).
3. Urry, C. M.; Scarpa, R.; O'Dowd, M.; Falomo, R.; Pesce, J. E.; Treves, A. (2000). "The Hubble
Space Telescope Survey of BL Lacertae Objects. II. Host Galaxies". The Astrophysical
Journal. 532 (2): 816. arXiv:astro-ph/9911109 (https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9911109).
Bibcode:2000ApJ...532..816U (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000ApJ...532..816U).
doi:10.1086/308616 (https://doi.org/10.1086%2F308616). S2CID 17721022 (https://api.sema
nticscholar.org/CorpusID:17721022).
4. Overbye, Dennis (12 July 2018). "It Came From a Black Hole, and Landed in Antarctica - For
the first time, astronomers followed cosmic neutrinos into the fire-spitting heart of a
supermassive blazar" (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/science/space-neutrinos-blazar.
html). The New York Times. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
5. "Neutrino that struck Antarctica traced to galaxy 3.7bn light years away" (https://www.theguar
dian.com/science/2018/jul/12/neutrino-that-struck-antarctica-traced-to-galaxy-37bn-light-year
s-away). The Guardian. 12 July 2018. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
6. "Source of cosmic 'ghost' particle revealed" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environme
nt-44786125y). BBC. 12 July 2018. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
7. Schmitt J. L. (1968): "BL Lac identified as radio source", Nature 218, 663
8. "Some Bizarre Black Holes Put On Light Shows" (https://www.npr.org/2017/01/03/50759445
6/some-bizarre-black-holes-put-on-light-shows). NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
9. Uchiyama, Yasunobu; Urry, C. Megan; Cheung, C. C.; Jester, Sebastian; Van Duyne, Jeffrey;
Coppi, Paolo; Sambruna, Rita M.; Takahashi, Tadayuki; Tavecchio, Fabrizio; Maraschi,
Laura (2006-09-10). "Shedding New Light on the 3C 273 Jet with the Spitzer Space
Telescope" (https://doi.org/10.1086%2F505964). The Astrophysical Journal. 648 (2): 910–
921. arXiv:astro-ph/0605530 (https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0605530).
Bibcode:2006ApJ...648..910U (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006ApJ...648..910U).
doi:10.1086/505964 (https://doi.org/10.1086%2F505964). ISSN 0004-637X (https://www.worl
dcat.org/issn/0004-637X).
10. "Black Hole 'Batteries' Keep Blazars Going and Going" (http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddar
d/black-hole-batteries-keep-blazars-going-and-going). 24 February 2015. Retrieved
2015-05-31.
11. Ajello, M.; Romani, R. W.; Gasparrini, D.; Shaw, M. S.; Bolmer, J.; Cotter, G.; Finke, J.;
Greiner, J.; Healey, S. E. (2014-01-01). "The Cosmic Evolution of Fermi BL Lacertae
Objects". The Astrophysical Journal. 780 (1): 73. arXiv:1310.0006 (https://arxiv.org/abs/1310.
0006). Bibcode:2014ApJ...780...73A (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014ApJ...780...73
A). doi:10.1088/0004-637X/780/1/73 (https://doi.org/10.1088%2F0004-637X%2F780%2F1%
2F73). ISSN 0004-637X (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0004-637X). S2CID 8733720 (https://
api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:8733720).
12. "SIMBAD query result" (http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=TXS+0506+056).
simbad.u-strasbg.fr. Retrieved 2018-07-13.
13. "IceCube Neutrinos Point to Long-Sought Cosmic Ray Accelerator" (https://icecube.wisc.ed
u/news/view/586). icecube.wisc.edu. 12 July 2018. Retrieved 2018-07-13.

External links
AAVSO High Energy Network (https://www.aavso.org/blazars)
 Blazar Monitoring List, Purdue University (http://www.physics.purdue.edu/astro/MOJAVE/bla
zarlist.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20201027174220/http://www.physics.purd
ue.edu/astro/MOJAVE/blazarlist.html) 2020-10-27 at the Wayback Machine
Expanding Gallery of Hires Blazar Images (http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-DSO-Quasars-Blaza
rs.htm)
NASA:Blazars Artist Conception Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK9TMnC7n8E)
NASA Cosmic Fog (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/cosmic-fog.html)
NASA Gamma Ray Census (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/gamma-ray-
census.html)
Video May 13 2013, NASA's Fermi Shows How Active Galaxies Can Be-Blazars (https://ww
w.youtube.com/watch?t=106&v=1J-LQqs_rYk&ab_channel=NASA.gov)
TED talk on blazars by Jedidah Isler (https://www.ted.com/talks/jedidah_isler_how_i_fell_in_
love_with_quasars_blazars_and_our_incredible_universe)
Astronomers Just Found a Radio Galaxy That Turned Into a Blazar (https://www.sciencealer
t.com/astronomers-just-found-a-radio-galaxy-that-turned-into-a-blazar)

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