Imaging a black hole with the Event Horizon Telescope

We have imaged the shadow of the central black hole in the radiogalaxy M87. This required assembling the Event Horizon Telescope, a global VLBI array observing at a wavelength of 1.3 mm capable of achieving an angular resolution of 20 microarcsecond (uas). We have resolved the central region of M87 into an asymmetric bright emission ring with a diameter of 42+-3 uas, which is circular and encompass a central depression in brightness with a flux ratio > 10:1, in agreement with the expectations for the shadow of a Kerr black hole as predicted by general relativity. We compare our images to a library of GRMHD and ray-tracing simulations and derive a central mass of 6.5x10^9 solar masses.

Date: 
12/04/2019 - 12:30
Speaker: 
Dr. Jose Luis Gómez
Filiation: 
IAA-CSIC


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