skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results and the Role of ALMA
In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration revealed the first image of the candidate super- massive black hole (SMBH) at the centre of the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87). This event-horizon-scale image shows a ring of glowing plasma with a dark patch at the centre, which is interpreted as the shadow of the black hole. This breakthrough result, which represents a powerful confirmation of Einstein’s theory of gravity, or general relativity, was made possible by assembling a global network of radio telescopes operating at millimetre wavelengths that for the first time included the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The addition of ALMA as an anchor station has enabled a giant leap forward by increasing the sensitivity limits of the EHT by an order of magnitude, effectively turning it into an imaging array. The published image demonstrates that it is now possible to directly study the event horizon shadows of SMBHs via electromagnetic radiation, thereby transforming this elusive frontier from a mathematical concept into an astrophysical reality. The expansion of the array over the next few years will include new stations on different continents — and eventually satellites in space. This will provide progressively sharper and higher-fidelity images of SMBH candidates, and potentially even movies of the hot plasma orbiting around SMBHs. These improvements will shed light on the processes of black hole accretion and jet formation on event-horizon scales, thereby enabling more precise tests of general relativity in the truly strong field regime.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1743747
PAR ID:
10188518
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more » ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; « less
Date Published:
Journal Name:
The messenger
Volume:
177
Issue:
25
ISSN:
0047-6811
Page Range / eLocation ID:
25-35
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; ; (, Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences)
    The event horizon telescope (EHT) is expected to soon produce polarimetric images of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the neighbouring galaxy M87. There are indications that this black hole is rapidly spinning. General relativity predicts that such a high-spin black hole has an emergent conformal symmetry near its event horizon. In this paper, we use this symmetry to analytically predict the polarized near-horizon emissions to be seen at the EHT and find a distinctive pattern of whorls aligned with the spin. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, The Astrophysical Journal Letters)
    Abstract We present the first Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the Galactic center source associated with a supermassive black hole. These observations were conducted in 2017 using a global interferometric array of eight telescopes operating at a wavelength of λ = 1.3 mm. The EHT data resolve a compact emission region with intrahour variability. A variety of imaging and modeling analyses all support an image that is dominated by a bright, thick ring with a diameter of 51.8 ± 2.3 μ as (68% credible interval). The ring has modest azimuthal brightness asymmetry and a comparatively dim interior. Using a large suite of numerical simulations, we demonstrate that the EHT images of Sgr A* are consistent with the expected appearance of a Kerr black hole with mass ∼4 × 10 6 M ⊙ , which is inferred to exist at this location based on previous infrared observations of individual stellar orbits, as well as maser proper-motion studies. Our model comparisons disfavor scenarios where the black hole is viewed at high inclination ( i > 50°), as well as nonspinning black holes and those with retrograde accretion disks. Our results provide direct evidence for the presence of a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, and for the first time we connect the predictions from dynamical measurements of stellar orbits on scales of 10 3 –10 5 gravitational radii to event-horizon-scale images and variability. Furthermore, a comparison with the EHT results for the supermassive black hole M87* shows consistency with the predictions of general relativity spanning over three orders of magnitude in central mass. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; ; ; (, The Astrophysical Journal)
    Abstract The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has produced images of the plasma flow around the supermassive black holes in Sgr A* and M87* with a resolution comparable to the projected size of their event horizons. Observations with the next-generation Event Horizon Telescope (ngEHT) will have significantly improved Fourier plane coverage and will be conducted at multiple frequency bands (86, 230, and 345 GHz), each with a wide bandwidth. At these frequencies, both Sgr A* and M87* transition from optically thin to optically thick. Resolved spectral index maps in the near-horizon and jet-launching regions of these supermassive black hole sources can constrain properties of the emitting plasma that are degenerate in single-frequency images. In addition, combining information from data obtained at multiple frequencies is a powerful tool for interferometric image reconstruction, since gaps in spatial scales in single-frequency observations can be filled in with information from other frequencies. Here we present a new method of simultaneously reconstructing interferometric images at multiple frequencies along with their spectral index maps. The method is based on existing regularized maximum likelihood (RML) methods commonly used for EHT imaging and is implemented in theeht-imagingPython software library. We show results of this method on simulated ngEHT data sets as well as on real data from the Very Long Baseline Array and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. These examples demonstrate that simultaneous RML multifrequency image reconstruction produces higher-quality and more scientifically useful results than is possible from combining independent image reconstructions at each frequency. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; (, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)
    ABSTRACT The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration has produced the first resolved images of the supermassive black holes at the centre of our galaxy and at the centre of the elliptical galaxy M87. As both technology and analysis pipelines improve, it will soon become possible to produce spectral index maps of black hole accretion flows on event horizon scales. In this work, we predict spectral index maps of both M87* and Sgr A* by applying the general relativistic radiative transfer (GRRT) code ipole to a suite of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations. We analytically show that the spectral index increases with increasing magnetic field strength, electron temperature, and optical depth. Consequently, spectral index maps grow more negative with increasing radius in almost all models, since all of these quantities tend to be maximized near the event horizon. Additionally, photon ring geodesics exhibit more positive spectral indices, since they sample the innermost regions of the accretion flow with the most extreme plasma conditions. Spectral index maps are sensitive to highly uncertain plasma heating prescriptions (the electron temperature and distribution function). However, if our understanding of these aspects of plasma physics can be tightened, even the spatially unresolved spectral index around 230 GHz can be used to discriminate between models. In particular, Standard and Normal Evolution (SANE) flows tend to exhibit more negative spectral indices than Magnetically Arrested Disc (MAD) flows due to differences in the characteristic magnetic field strength and temperature of emitting plasma. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; (, The Astrophysical Journal)
    Abstract The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) images of the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy M87 provided the first image of the accretion environment on horizon scales. General relativity (GR) predicts that the image of the shadow should be nearly circular given the inclination angle of the black hole M87*. A robust detection of ellipticity in image reconstructions of M87* could signal new gravitational physics on horizon scales. Here we analyze whether the imaging parameters used in EHT analyses are sensitive to ring ellipticity, and measure the constraints on the ellipticity of M87*. We find that the top set is unable to recover ellipticity. Even for simple geometric models, the true ellipticity is biased low, preferring circular rings. Therefore, to place a constraint on the ellipticity of M87*, we measure the ellipticity of 550 synthetic data sets produced from GRMHD simulations. We find that images with intrinsic axis ratios of 2:1 are consistent with the ellipticity seen from EHT image reconstructions. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email