On rapid interstellar scintillation of quasars: PKS 1257-326 revisited

The line of sight towards the compact, radio loud quasar PKS 1257-326 passesthrough a patch of scattering plasma in the local Galactic ISM that causes large and rapid,intra-hour variations in the received flux density at centimetre wavelengths. This rapid interstellarscintillation (SS) has been occu...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bignall, Hayley, Hodgson, J.
Other Authors: RE Griffin
Format: Conference Paper
Published: Cambridge University Press 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/7455
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author Bignall, Hayley
Hodgson, J.
author2 RE Griffin
author_facet RE Griffin
Bignall, Hayley
Hodgson, J.
author_sort Bignall, Hayley
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The line of sight towards the compact, radio loud quasar PKS 1257-326 passesthrough a patch of scattering plasma in the local Galactic ISM that causes large and rapid,intra-hour variations in the received flux density at centimetre wavelengths. This rapid interstellarscintillation (SS) has been occurring for at least 15 years, implying that the scattering“screen” is at least 100 AU in physical extent. Through observations of the ISS we have measuredmicroarcsecond-scale “core shifts” in PKS 1257-326, corresponding to changing opacityduring an intrinsic outburst. Recent analysis of VLA data of a sample of 128 quasars found 6sources scintillating with a characteristic time-scale of < 2 hours, suggesting that nearby scatteringscreens in the ISM may have a covering fraction of a few percent. That is an importantconsideration for proposed surveys of the transient and variable radio sky
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-74552023-02-02T07:57:36Z On rapid interstellar scintillation of quasars: PKS 1257-326 revisited Bignall, Hayley Hodgson, J. RE Griffin RJ Hanisch RL Seaman quasars structure individual high angular resolution techniques ISM The line of sight towards the compact, radio loud quasar PKS 1257-326 passesthrough a patch of scattering plasma in the local Galactic ISM that causes large and rapid,intra-hour variations in the received flux density at centimetre wavelengths. This rapid interstellarscintillation (SS) has been occurring for at least 15 years, implying that the scattering“screen” is at least 100 AU in physical extent. Through observations of the ISS we have measuredmicroarcsecond-scale “core shifts” in PKS 1257-326, corresponding to changing opacityduring an intrinsic outburst. Recent analysis of VLA data of a sample of 128 quasars found 6sources scintillating with a characteristic time-scale of < 2 hours, suggesting that nearby scatteringscreens in the ISM may have a covering fraction of a few percent. That is an importantconsideration for proposed surveys of the transient and variable radio sky 2012 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/7455 10.1017/S1743921312000439 Cambridge University Press fulltext
spellingShingle quasars
structure
individual
high angular resolution
techniques
ISM
Bignall, Hayley
Hodgson, J.
On rapid interstellar scintillation of quasars: PKS 1257-326 revisited
title On rapid interstellar scintillation of quasars: PKS 1257-326 revisited
title_full On rapid interstellar scintillation of quasars: PKS 1257-326 revisited
title_fullStr On rapid interstellar scintillation of quasars: PKS 1257-326 revisited
title_full_unstemmed On rapid interstellar scintillation of quasars: PKS 1257-326 revisited
title_short On rapid interstellar scintillation of quasars: PKS 1257-326 revisited
title_sort on rapid interstellar scintillation of quasars: pks 1257-326 revisited
topic quasars
structure
individual
high angular resolution
techniques
ISM
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/7455