Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-astrophysics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/3/a/solution

Work in the source rest frame and neglect the source's small cosmological redshift. Over an emission interval , a ballistic relativistic jet feature travels , advancing toward the observer and across the sky. The second photon has a shorter journey, so its arrival is delayed by only
Dividing the projected displacement by this arrival interval gives
Apparent superluminal motion is a combination of projection and light-travel delay. The feature's local speed remains ; its inferred transverse displacement divided by the observer's arrival interval is not a local signal velocity.

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