Imaging the Very High Energy Emitting Region in M87
Abstract
The radio galaxy M87 (Virgo A) hosts a supermassive black hole whose apparent angular size from Earth is just under 10 microarcseconds. Observations at comparable resolution would allow for detailed study of AGN jet formation at the smallest scales and models of very high energy gamma-ray emission. The Event Horizon Telescope, a (sub)millimeter very long baseline interferometry network, can achieve angular resolutions sufficient to resolve and image the material near the event horizon in M87 and other supermassive black hole sources. Current observations at 230 GHz using antennas at Hawaii, California, and Arizona have successfully detected compact emission at the base of the M87 jet on the scale of a few Schwarzschild radii. The resulting size estimates for the millimeter core of M87 set stringent constraints on the processes that produces the well-studied radio jet in this source and impact models invoked to produce the gamma-ray emission observed from M87.
- Publication:
-
38th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010cosp...38.2303F