The infrared jet of M87 observed with JWST
Jan R\"oder, Maciek Wielgus, Joseph B. Jensen, Gagandeep S. Anand, R. Brent Tully

TL;DR
This paper presents the first JWST near-infrared images of M87's jet, revealing detailed structure, spectral properties, and subcomponents, advancing understanding of jet physics in active galaxies.
Contribution
First JWST NIRCam imaging of M87's jet, providing high-resolution infrared data and detailed analysis of jet components and spectral indices.
Findings
Resolved the upstream knot L at 320 mas from core.
Identified the double-component structure of HST-1 with spectral index variation.
Detected the counter-jet 24 arcsec from the nucleus.
Abstract
We present the first JWST+NIRCam images of the giant elliptical active galaxy M87 and its jet at 0.90, 1.50, 2.77 and 3.56 m. We analysed the large-scale jet structure, identifying prominent components, and determined the near-infrared spectral index. The data were calibrated using the standard JWST pipeline. We subtracted a constant background level and a smooth model of the galaxy surface brightness to isolate the jet. The total image fluxes measured in the NIRCam filters follow the infrared bump pattern seen near 1.6 m in the spectral energy distribution of M87, caused by the surrounding stellar population in the galaxy. The residual jet images broadly agree with the radio to optical synchrotron power law with 0.7-1.0. We identified the most upstream knot L at a distance of (32050) mas from the core. The component HST-1, at…
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