Extragalactic megahertz-peaked spectrum radio sources at milliarcsecond scales

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Pictured are the powerful radio jets of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) which were launched from a supermassive black hole approximately 3 billion light years away. The pictured AGN is particularly interesting as its steep spectra at low frequencies (far right) suggests the absorption of light is primarily caused by the surrounding gas clouds, rather than by electrons within the relativistic jets themselves. Combining observations from telescopes across the globe at multiple frequencies we imaged the jets of sources that are hypothesised to be young AGN (left, middle). We discovered the jets were smaller than expected, suggesting it is possible that the host galaxy includes a gaseous medium frustrating the jets' growth. Such a discovery implies our understanding of the early stages of radio AGN is incomplete. If you want to learn more, our paper was recently accepted to the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics (A&A) and you can access findings publicly here: https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.07708.