Early Results from the Chandra X-ray Observatory

Abstract

We present some early results on AGN from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, highlighting high resolution spectroscopy using the High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (HETGS). The quasar PKS 0637-752 was found to have a very bright X-ray jet whose shape is remarkably similar to that of the radio jet on a size scale of 100 kpc, but the X-ray emission is still inexplicably bright. Two BL Lac objects, PKS 2155-304 and Mrk 421, observed with the spectrometer were found to have no strong absorption or emission features. Other radio loud AGN observed with the HETGS show simple power law spectra without obvious features.

Contributed talk presented at the Joint MPE,AIP,ESO workshop on NLS1s, Bad Honnef, Dec. 1999, to appear in New Astronomy Reviews; also available at http://wave.xray.mpe.mpg.de/conferences/nls1-workshop