High resolution radio image of the nearby star LS 5039 obtained with the VLBA and the phased VLA at 6 cm wavelength. The colours indicate the flux density, given in mJy (1 mJy = 10^-26 erg s^-1 cm^-2 Hz^-1). The higher flux densities correspond to the central core in red, while the jet lobes at left and right are weaker and appear in green and blue, respectively. The presence of radio jets in this high-mass X-ray binary indicates that it is a microquasar source.

The image is centered at coordinates R.A. (J2000) = 18h 26m 15.056s and DEC (J2000) = -14° 50' 54.24". Nord is up and East is to the left. Contours correspond to 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40 and 50 times the image noise, which is 0.085 mJy/beam. The ellipse at the bottom left corner represents the synthesized beam, which indicates the resolution of the image and corresponds to 3.4 x 1.2 milli-arcseconds. Taking into account that the distance to LS 5039 is of 3000 parsecs (approximately 10000 light-years), one milli-arcsecond is equivalent to 4.5 x 10¹³ cm (3 astronomical units).
 
 

For any question please contact Josep M. Paredes (josep@am.ub.es)