Spitzer Space Telescope - General Observer Proposal #50795


Non-thermal infrared emission - a unique window on radio galaxy lobes

Principal Investigator: Robert Antonucci
           Institution: University of California, Santa Barbara

     Technical Contact: Robert Antonucci, University of California, Santa Barbara

Co-Investigators: 
Lawrence Rudnick, UMN                                                 
Christian Leipski, UCSB                                               

Science Category: AGN/quasars/radio galaxies 
 Observing Modes: IracMap 
  Hours Approved: 7.7 

Abstract:
Powerful radio galaxies play an essential role in the dynamics and
thermodynamics of the intracluster medium. Fundamental questions exist, however,
about their energy budget - how much energy is transferred and how they
apparently distribute it uniformly. High sensitivity Spitzer observations offer
a unique and critical tool for probing the energetics of lobes of radio galaxies
and the physics of the relativistic particle acceleration process. The work on
e.g. M87 has already shown that the energy going into particle acceleration may
seriously affect the amount available for heating the external medium. In this
last cold cycle, it is critical to establish whether this is a common phenomenon
in radio galaxy lobes, spanning a range of morphologies as in our targets, or
whether this is simply another special feature of M87. In order to achieve this
goal we here propose to obtain deep IRAC observations of six radio galaxies with
exceptionally bright and highly structured radio lobes.