1995A&A...295...27D

Global VLBI observations at 1.66GHz of 16 powerful radio sources from the Peacock & Wall (1981MNRAS.194..601P) catalogue and classified as Compact Steep-Spectrum (CSS) sources are presented. These sources have, on average, higher turnover frequencies and smaller overall sizes than the CSS's selected from the 3CR catalogue. The VLBI images show other substantial morphological differences, and the scenario previously drawn for 3CR galaxies and quasars may be no longer completely valid. For example, some of the CSS galaxies in this sample have bright jets and cores, and one of them (1829+290) has ∼90% of the total flux density at this frequency coming from two nearly symmetric jets. Their overall structures can be compared with those of the compact triple sources (Conway et al. 1992ApJ...396...62C). Although the galaxies in the present sample are bigger in size and not core dominated, the central component often shows a direct connection with one of the lobes, and variability is usually not observed. Quasars in this sample show a variety of morphologies, often complex or core-jet like, with compact components dominating the radio emission at this frequency.