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How to Use the Relativistic Jets & Doppler Beaming 3D Explorer

Open the Relativistic Jets & Doppler Beaming 3D Explorer, drag the two sliders, and watch the approaching jet brighten while the receding jet fades - computed live from the exact Doppler-beaming formulas.

  1. Open https://freetoolonline.com/space-3d/relativistic-jets-agn.html and wait for the black hole, the accretion disk, and the two bipolar jets to render.
  2. Drag the Lorentz factor slider (Γ = 1.01 to 15) to set how fast the jet plasma moves.
  3. Drag the viewing angle slider (θ = 1 to 90 degrees) to set the angle between the jet axis and your line of sight.
  4. Click "M87" to load the real VLBA-estimated values (Γ=10.9, θ=17 degrees) for the M87 jet.
  5. Click "Blazar-like" to see the extreme one-sided beaming a small viewing angle produces.
  6. Read the facts panel for the computed Doppler factors, the flux ratio between the two jets, and the apparent transverse speed.

Key published figures

FigureValue
M87* black hole massabout 6.5 billion solar masses (EHT Collaboration 2019)
M87 jet viewing angleabout 17 degrees (VLBA studies)
M87 jet intrinsic Lorentz factorabout 10.9 (inner jet)
M87 HST-1 knot apparent speed, measured6.3 +/- 0.4c (Snios et al. 2019)

Next: the when guide or vs alternatives. Open the Relativistic Jets & Doppler Beaming 3D Explorer.

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