4C +01.02
4C +01.02 is a blazar located in the constellation of Cetus. It has a high redshift of 2.099, with its distance estimated to be 10.663 billion light-years. It was first discovered as a faint astronomical radio source by astronomers in 1965 and subsequently identified with its quasi-stellar counterpart. This object hosts a superluminal jet and has a radio spectrum that is classified as flat.
Description
4C +01.02 is found to be violently variable on the electromagnetic spectrum with its bright state exceeding 1050 erg s−1. It has displayed several gamma ray outbursts which were detected on 14 September 2013 and on December 20, 2014. When shown on a 7-day gamma-ray light curve, 4C +01.02 showed long periods of flaring activity between September 23, 2014 and August 24, 2017 while the 2-day light curve revealed there are 14 flaring components showing the greatest possible integral flux of x 10−6 ph cm−2 s−1. A short variability was also identified, which was 0.66 ± 0.08 days. Additional gamma-ray activity was observed by the Large Area Telescope in March and September 2022. Simultaneously, 4C +01.02 also reached a high optical state in the same month.4C +01.02 is classified as a core-dominated quasar. It has a radio core measuring 2 milliarcseconds. There is a much weaker feature located southwest from the core. A strong jet can be seen pointing in a southerly direction displaying a magnetic field which is parallel with the jet's direction via a 8.5 GHz radio image. When observed by Hubble and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the jet displays X-ray emission that follows its trajectory in an S-shaped path and subsequently becoming brighter. Superluminal motion was also detected in the jet components.
The central supermassive black hole mass of 4C +01.02 is estimated to be 3 billion Mʘ based on the constraint of its accretion disk component. Additionally in 2024, its gamma emission was found displaying quasi-periodic oscillation with a period of either 253 or 286 days.