The radio morphology of 3C 120 on scales from 0.5 parsecs to 400 kiloparsecs
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Abstract
VLA observations of the radio source 3C 120 on scales from 0.1 arcsec to over 14 arcmin were made, and the resulting maps are presented and discussed. The radio emission shows structure on all scales from less than a pc to greater than 400 kpc. A continuously connected jet is visible from less than a parsec from the central engine to over 100 kpc, well outside the galaxy. There is a lobe in the counterjet direction and diffuse emission in several directions. The three-dimensional morphology is not clear but might resemble some of the large double or wide-angle head-tail sources seen along the axis of the jet. The polarization observations imply a longitudinal magnetic field throughout nearly all of the jet. The brightness of the jet decreases following a simple power law with width, implying that the physical parameters also follow simple power laws. These results are interpreted in the context of the incoherent synchrotron model for radio emission.