First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope results. I. The shadow of the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way
Files
Published version
Date
2022-05-01
Authors
Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration
Akiyama, Kazunori
Alberdi, Antxon
Alef, Walter
Algaba, Juan Carlos
Anantua, Richard
Asada, Keiichi
Azulay, Rebecca
Bach, Uwe
Baczko, Anne-Kathrin
Version
OA Version
Published version
Citation
Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, K. Akiyama, A. Alberdi, W. Alef, J.C. Algaba, R. Anantua, K. Asada, R. Azulay, U. Bach, A.-K. Baczko, D. Ball, M. Baloković, J. Barrett, M. Bauböck, B.A. Benson, D. Bintley, L. Blackburn, R. Blundell, K.L. Bouman, G.C. Bower, H. Boyce, M. Bremer, C.D. Brinkerink, R. Brissenden, S. Britzen, A.E. Broderick, D. Broguiere, T. Bronzwaer, S. Bustamante, D.-Y. Byun, J.E. Carlstrom, C. Ceccobello, A. Chael, C.-K. Chan, K. Chatterjee, S. Chatterjee, M.-T. Chen, Y. Chen, X. Cheng, I. Cho, P. Christian, N.S. Conroy, J.E. Conway, J.M. Cordes, T.M. Crawford, G.B. Crew, A. Cruz-Osorio, Y. Cui, J. Davelaar, M.D. Laurentis, R. Deane, J. Dempsey, G. Desvignes, J. Dexter, V. Dhruv, S.S. Doeleman, S. Dougal, S.A. Dzib, R.P. Eatough, R. Emami, H. Falcke, J. Farah, V.L. Fish, E. Fomalont, H.A. Ford, R. Fraga-Encinas, W.T. Freeman, P. Friberg, C.M. Fromm, A. Fuentes, P. Galison, C.F. Gammie, R. García, O. Gentaz, B. Georgiev, C. Goddi, R. Gold, A.I. Gómez-Ruiz, J.L. Gómez, M. Gu, M. Gurwell, K. Hada, D. Haggard, K. Haworth, M.H. Hecht, R. Hesper, D. Heumann, L.C. Ho, P. Ho, M. Honma, C.-W.L. Huang, L. Huang, D.H. Hughes, S. Ikeda, C.M.V. Impellizzeri, M. Inoue, S. Issaoun, D.J. James, B.T. Jannuzi, M. Janssen, B. Jeter, W. Jiang, A. Jiménez-Rosales, M.D. Johnson, S. Jorstad, A.V. Joshi, T. Jung, M. Karami, R. Karuppusamy, T. Kawashima, G.K. Keating, M. Kettenis, D.-J. Kim, J.-Y. Kim, J. Kim, J. Kim, M. Kino, J.Y. Koay, P. Kocherlakota, Y. Kofuji, P.M. Koch, S. Koyama, C. Kramer, M. Kramer, T.P. Krichbaum, C.-Y. Kuo, N.L. Bella, T.R. Lauer, D. Lee, S.-S. Lee, P.K. Leung, A. Levis, Z. Li, R. Lico, G. Lindahl, M. Lindqvist, M. Lisakov, J. Liu, K. Liu, E. Liuzzo, W.-P. Lo, A.P. Lobanov, L. Loinard, C.J. Lonsdale, R.-S. Lu, J. Mao, N. Marchili, S. Markoff, D.P. Marrone, A.P. Marscher, I. Martí-Vidal, S. Matsushita, L.D. Matthews, L. Medeiros, K.M. Menten, D. Michalik, I. Mizuno, Y. Mizuno, J.M. Moran, K. Moriyama, M. Moscibrodzka, C. Müller, A. Mus, G. Musoke, I. Myserlis, A. Nadolski, H. Nagai, N.M. Nagar, M. Nakamura, R. Narayan, G. Narayanan, I. Natarajan, A. Nathanail, S.N. Fuentes, J. Neilsen, R. Neri, C. Ni, A. Noutsos, M.A. Nowak, J. Oh, H. Okino, H. Olivares, G.N. Ortiz-León, T. Oyama, F. Özel, D.C.M. Palumbo, G.F. Paraschos, J. Park, H. Parsons, N. Patel, U.-L. Pen, D.W. Pesce, V. Piétu, R. Plambeck, A. PopStefanija, O. Porth, F.M. Pötzl, B. Prather, J.A. Preciado-López, D. Psaltis, H.-Y. Pu, V. Ramakrishnan, R. Rao, M.G. Rawlings, A.W. Raymond, L. Rezzolla, A. Ricarte, B. Ripperda, F. Roelofs, A. Rogers, E. Ros, C. Romero-Cañizales, A. Roshanineshat, H. Rottmann, A.L. Roy, I. Ruiz, C. Ruszczyk, K.L.J. Rygl, S. Sánchez, D. Sánchez-Argüelles, M. Sánchez-Portal, M. Sasada, K. Satapathy, T. Savolainen, F.P. Schloerb, J. Schonfeld, K.-F. Schuster, L. Shao, Z. Shen, D. Small, B.W. Sohn, J. SooHoo, K. Souccar, H. Sun, F. Tazaki, A.J. Tetarenko, P. Tiede, R.P.J. Tilanus, M. Titus, P. Torne, E. Traianou, T. Trent, S. Trippe, M. Turk, I. van Bemmel, H.J. van Langevelde, D.R. van Rossum, J. Vos, J. Wagner, D. Ward-Thompson, J. Wardle, J. Weintroub, N. Wex, R. Wharton, M. Wielgus, K. Wiik, G. Witzel, M.F. Wondrak, G.N. Wong, Q. Wu, P. Yamaguchi, D. Yoon, A. Young, K. Young, Z. Younsi, F. Yuan, Y.-F. Yuan, J.A. Zensus, S. Zhang, G.-Y. Zhao, S.-S. Zhao, C. Agurto, A. Allardi, R. Amestica, J.P. Araneda, O. Arriagada, J.L. Berghuis, A. Bertarini, R. Berthold, J. Blanchard, K. Brown, M. Cárdenas, M. Cantzler, P. Caro, E. Castillo-Domínguez, T.L. Chan, C.-C. Chang, D.O. Chang, S.-H. Chang, S.-C. Chang, C.-C. Chen, R. Chilson, T.C. Chuter, M. Ciechanowicz, E. Colin-Beltran, I.M. Coulson, J. Crowley, N. Degenaar, S. Dornbusch, C.A. Durán, W.B. Everett, A. Faber, K. Forster, M.M. Fuchs, D.M. Gale, G. Geertsema, E. González, D. Graham, F. Gueth, N.W. Halverson, C.-C. Han, K.-C. Han, Y. Hasegawa, J.L. Hernández-Rebollar, C. Herrera, R. Herrero-Illana, S. Heyminck, A. Hirota, J. Hoge, S.R. Hostler Schimpf, R.E. Howie, Y.-D. Huang, H. Jiang, H. Jinchi, D. John, K. Kimura, T. Klein, D. Kubo, J. Kuroda, C. Kwon, R. Lacasse, R. Laing, E.M. Leitch, C.-T. Li, C.-T. Liu, K.-Y. Liu, L.C.-C. Lin, L.-M. Lu, F. Mac-Auliffe, P. Martin-Cocher, C. Matulonis, J.K. Maute, H. Messias, Z. Meyer-Zhao, A. Montaña, F. Montenegro-Montes, W. Montgomerie, M.E. Moreno Nolasco, D. Muders, H. Nishioka, T.J. Norton, G. Nystrom, H. Ogawa, R. Olivares, P. Oshiro, J.P. Pérez-Beaupuits, R. Parra, N.M. Phillips, M. Poirier, N. Pradel, R. Qiu, P.A. Raffin, A.S. Rahlin, J. Ramírez, S. Ressler, M. Reynolds, I. Rodríguez-Montoya, A.F. Saez-Madain, J. Santana, P. Shaw, L.E. Shirkey, K.M. Silva, W. Snow, D. Sousa, T.K. Sridharan, W. Stahm, A.A. Stark, J. Test, K. Torstensson, P. Venegas, C. Walther, T.-S. Wei, C. White, G. Wieching, R. Wijnands, J.G.A. Wouterloot, C.-Y. Yu, W. Yu (于威), M. Zeballos. 2022. "First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole in the Center of the Milky Way" Letters of the Astrophysical Journal, Volume 930, Issue 2, pp.L12-L12. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ac6674
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 μas (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 × 106
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 103–105 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.
Description
License
© 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.