The two sided parsec scale structure of the Low Luminosity Active Galactic Nucleus in NGC 4278

We present new Very Long Baseline Interferometry observations of the LINER galaxy NGC 4278 with a linear resolution of ⪉ 0.1 pc. Our radio data reveal a two sided structure, with symmetric S-shaped jets emerging from a flat spectrum core. By comparing the positions of the components in two epochs, we measure motions corresponding to apparent velocities ⪉ 0.2 c, and to ages in the range 8.3 - 65.8 years. From our measurements, we derive that NGC 4278 has mildly relativistic jets (β ∼ 0.75), closely aligned to the line-of-sight (2 ° ≤ θ ≤ 4°). We also present a flux density history for the source with data between 1972 and 2003. All these arguments indicates that the low power radio emission from NGC 4278 is emitted via the synchrotron process by relativistic particles accelerated by a supermassive black hole. (astro-ph/0412563 )