Abstract
This paper describes a personal view of the discovery of radio jets in celestial radio sources. The existence of narrow, collimated optical features in distant objects has been known about since the early 20th century; however, the advent of radio astronomy in the 1940s and 1950s revealed the existence of a large number of discrete radio sources. The realization that many of these objects were not primarily stellar or local to our own galaxy, but rather extragalactic, followed the determination of accurate radio positions, enabling identifications with optical objects. High-resolution radio interferometers found that they were often compact, and with a double lobed structure, implying outflow from a central object. Shortly afterwards, accurate techniques for the measurement of polarization were developed. However it was not until the advent of synthesis instruments in the 1970s that radio images of the sources were produced, and the existence of radio jets firmly established and their polarization characteristics found.
Highlights
This conference, on the Polarization of Astrophysical Jets, concentrates on the latest results from observations at many wavelengths, and from theoretical calculations and simulations
To describe some of the historical background to the discovery of jets in the 20th century. Some of this story coincides with the professional career of the author, who knew many of the protagonists, and who is inevitably somewhat biased towards the development of radio astronomy at the University of Manchester
It became clear that more sensitivity was required to extend the work to weaker sources, and the the only way to do this was by increasing the telescope collecting area
Summary
This conference, on the Polarization of Astrophysical Jets, concentrates on the latest results from observations at many wavelengths, and from theoretical calculations and simulations. It seems appropriate, to describe some of the historical background to the discovery of jets in the 20th century. To describe some of the historical background to the discovery of jets in the 20th century Some of this story coincides with the professional career of the author, who knew many of the protagonists, and who is inevitably somewhat biased towards the development of radio astronomy at the University of Manchester. This paper mainly discusses the events leading up to the discovery of radio jets in extragalactic sources
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