Spitzer Space Telescope - General Observer Proposal #3418


The low-redshift 3CRR sources

Principal Investigator: Mark Birkinshaw
           Institution: University of Bristol

Co-Investigators: 
Peter Barthel, University of Groningen                                
Paul Green, Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Observatory         
Dean Hines, University of Arizona                                     
Eric Hooper, University of Texas                                      
Charles Lawrence, Jet Propulsion Laboratory                           
Howard Smith, Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Observatory       
Ilse van Bemmel, Space Telescope Science Institute                    
Belinda Wilkes, Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Observatory     
Steve Willner, Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Observatory      
Diana Worrall, Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Observatory      

Science Category: AGN/quasars/radio galaxies 
 Observing Modes: IracMap MipsPhot 
  Hours Approved: 33.5 

Abstract:
We propose a program of IRAC and MIPS imaging photometry of the
complete sample of z < 0.1 3CRR radio galaxies.  These images will
provide excellent information on the IR colors of the galaxies and
active nuclei, and detect IR emission from several of the radio jets.
We will use the data (1) to confirm the unusual IR colors of the host
galaxies, which we interpret in terms of dusty debris from a recent
encounter, which may have provided the fuel for the current radio
activity of the nuclei;  (2) to measure the energy outputs of the
nuclei, and test the relationship between radio power and nuclear
properties expected under unified schemes (and barely hinted at in the
ISO database);  (3) to study orientation effects in the IR emission of
the nuclei, by comparing their IR properties with radio-derived
indications of orientation;  and (4) to construct wide-band spectra
for the radio jets, and so test the universality of the maximum
electron energy that appears from our radio to X-ray spectra, which we
expect to result in a spectral break in the mid-IR at flux density
levels accessible only to the Spitzer Space Telescope.