Monitoring the Morphology of M87* in 2009-2017 with the Event Horizon Telescope
Journal article, 2020
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has recently delivered the first resolved images of M87*, the supermassive black hole in the center of the M87 galaxy. These images were produced using 230 GHz observations performed in 2017 April. Additional observations are required to investigate the persistence of the primary image feature-a ring with azimuthal brightness asymmetry-and to quantify the image variability on event horizon scales. To address this need, we analyze M87* data collected with prototype EHT arrays in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013. While these observations do not contain enough information to produce images, they are sufficient to constrain simple geometric models. We develop a modeling approach based on the framework utilized for the 2017 EHT data analysis and validate our procedures using synthetic data. Applying the same approach to the observational data sets, we find the M87* morphology in 2009-2017 to be consistent with a persistent asymmetric ring of similar to 40 mu as diameter. The position angle of the peak intensity varies in time. In particular, we find a significant difference between the position angle measured in 2013 and 2017. These variations are in broad agreement with predictions of a subset of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations. We show that quantifying the variability across multiple observational epochs has the potential to constrain the physical properties of the source, such as the accretion state or the black hole spin.
Supermassive black holes
Active galactic nuclei
Galaxy accretion
Very long baseline interferometry
Astronomy data modeling
Low-luminosity active galactic nuclei
Black holes
Galaxy accretion disks
Radio interferometry
Author
Maciek Wielgus
Harvard University
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Kazunori Akiyama
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Harvard University
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Lindy Blackburn
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Harvard University
Chi-kwan Chan
University of Arizona
Jason Dexter
University of Colorado at Boulder
Sheperd S. Doeleman
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Harvard University
Vincent L. Fish
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Sara Issaoun
Radboud University
Michael D. Johnson
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Harvard University
Thomas P. Krichbaum
Max Planck Society
Ru-Sen Lu
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Max Planck Society
Dominic W. Pesce
Harvard University
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
George N. Wong
University of Illinois
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Geoffrey C. Bower
Academia Sinica
Avery E. Broderick
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
University of Waterloo
Andrew Chael
Princeton University
Koushik Chatterjee
University of Amsterdam
Charles F. Gammie
University of Illinois
Boris Georgiev
University of Waterloo
Kazuhiro Hada
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI)
Laurent Loinard
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Sera Markoff
University of Amsterdam
Daniel P. Marrone
University of Arizona
Richard Plambeck
University of California at Berkeley
Jonathan Weintroub
Harvard University
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Matthew Dexter
University of California at Berkeley
David H. E. MacMahon
University of California at Berkeley
Melvyn Wright
University of California at Berkeley
Antxon Alberdi
Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA)
Walter Alef
Max Planck Society
Keiichi Asada
Academia Sinica
Rebecca Azulay
Universitat de Valencia
Max Planck Society
Anne-Kathrin Baczko
Max Planck Society
David Ball
University of Arizona
Mislav Balokovic
Harvard University
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Enrico Barausse
International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA
IFPU—Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe
John Barrett
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Dan Bintley
East Asian Observatory
Wilfred Boland
Nederlandse Onderzoekschool voor Astronomie (NOVA)
Katherine L. Bouman
Harvard University
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Michael Bremer
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Christiaan D. Brinkerink
Radboud University
Roger Brissenden
Harvard University
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Silke Britzen
Nederlandse Onderzoekschool voor Astronomie (NOVA)
Dominique Broguiere
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Thomas Bronzwaer
Radboud University
Do-Young Byun
University of Science and Technology (UST)
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
John E. Carlstrom
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
University of Chicago
Shami Chatterjee
Cornell University
Ming-Tang Chen
Academia Sinica
Yongjun Chen
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Ilje Cho
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
University of Science and Technology (UST)
Pierre Christian
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
University of Arizona
John Conway
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Onsala Space Observatory
James M. Cordes
Cornell University
Geoffrey B. Crew
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Yuzhu Cui
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI)
Jordy Davelaar
Radboud University
Mariafelicia De Laurentis
National Institute for Nuclear Physics
Goethe University Frankfurt
Roger Deane
University of Pretoria
Rhodes University
Jessica Dempsey
East Asian Observatory
Gregory Desvignes
Paris Descartes University
Sergio A. Dzib
Max Planck Society
Ralph P. Eatough
Max Planck Society
Heino Falcke
Radboud University
Ed Fomalont
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Raquel Fraga-Encinas
Radboud University
Per Friberg
East Asian Observatory
Christian M. Fromm
Goethe University Frankfurt
Peter Galison
Harvard University
Roberto Garcia
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Olivier Gentaz
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Ciriaco Goddi
Radboud University
Leiden University
Roman Gold
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
University of Southern Denmark
Jose L. Gomez
Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA)
Arturo I. Gomez-Ruiz
National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics
National Council for Science and Technology Mexico
Minfeng Gu
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Mark Gurwell
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Michael H. Hecht
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Ronald Hesper
University of Groningen
Luis C. Ho
Beijing University of Technology
Paul Ho
Academia Sinica
Mareki Honma
The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI)
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Chih-Wei L. Huang
Academia Sinica
Lei Huang
Chinese Academy of Sciences
David H. Hughes
National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics
Makoto Inoue
Academia Sinica
David J. James
ASTRAVEO
Buell T. Jannuzi
University of Arizona
Michael Janssen
Radboud University
Britton Jeter
University of Waterloo
Wu Jiang
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Alejandra Jimenez-Rosales
Max Planck Society
Svetlana Jorstad
Boston University
Saint Petersburg State University - Spsu
Taehyun Jung
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
University of Science and Technology (UST)
Mansour Karami
University of Waterloo
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Ramesh Karuppusamy
Max Planck Society
Tomohisa Kawashima
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Garrett K. Keating
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Mark Kettenis
Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE)
Jae-Young Kim
Max Planck Society
Junhan Kim
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
University of Arizona
Jongsoo Kim
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
Motoki Kino
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Kogakuin University of Technology and Engineering
Jun Yi Koay
Academia Sinica
Patrick M. Koch
Academia Sinica
Shoko Koyama
Academia Sinica
Michael Kramer
Max Planck Society
Carsten Kramer
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Cheng-Yu Kuo
National Sun Yat-Sen University
Tod R. Lauer
National Optical Astronomy Observatory
Sang-Sung Lee
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
Yan-Rong Li
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhiyuan Li
Nanjing University
Michael Lindqvist
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Onsala Space Observatory
Rocco Lico
Max Planck Society
Kuo Liu
Max Planck Society
Elisabetta Liuzzo
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
Wen-Ping Lo
National Taiwan University
University of Amsterdam
Andrei P. Lobanov
Max Planck Society
Colin Lonsdale
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Nicholas R. MacDonald
Max Planck Society
Jirong Mao
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Nicola Marchili
Max Planck Society
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
Alan P. Marscher
Boston University
Ivan Marti-Vidal
Universitat de Valencia
Satoki Matsushita
Academia Sinica
Lynn D. Matthews
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Lia Medeiros
University of Arizona
Institute for Advanced Study
Karl M. Menten
Max Planck Society
Yosuke Mizuno
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Goethe University Frankfurt
Izumi Mizuno
East Asian Observatory
James M. Moran
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Harvard University
Kotaro Moriyama
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Monika Moscibrodzka
Radboud University
Cornelia Mueller
Max Planck Society
Radboud University
Gibwa Musoke
University of Amsterdam
Radboud University
Hiroshi Nagai
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI)
Neil M. Nagar
University of Concepcion
Masanori Nakamura
Academia Sinica
Ramesh Narayan
Harvard University
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Gopal Narayanan
University of Massachusetts
Iniyan Natarajan
Rhodes University
Antonios Nathanail
Goethe University Frankfurt
Roberto Neri
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Chunchong Ni
University of Waterloo
University of Amsterdam
Aristeidis Noutsos
Max Planck Society
Hiroki Okino
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
University of Tokyo
Hector Olivares
Goethe University Frankfurt
Gisela N. Ortiz-Leon
Max Planck Society
Tomoaki Oyama
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Feryal Ozel
University of Arizona
Daniel C. M. Palumbo
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Harvard University
Jongho Park
Academia Sinica
Nimesh Patel
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Ue-Li Pen
University of Toronto
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Vincent Pietu
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Aleksandar PopStefanija
University of Massachusetts
Oliver Porth
Goethe University Frankfurt
University of Amsterdam
Ben Prather
University of Illinois
Jorge A. Preciado-Lopez
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Dimitrios Psaltis
University of Arizona
Hung-Yi Pu
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Academia Sinica
National Taiwan Normal University
Venkatessh Ramakrishnan
University of Concepcion
Ramprasad Rao
Academia Sinica
Mark G. Rawlings
East Asian Observatory
Alexander W. Raymond
Harvard University
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Luciano Rezzolla
Goethe University Frankfurt
Trinity College Dublin
Bart Ripperda
Princeton University
Flatiron Institute
Freek Roelofs
Radboud University
Alan Rogers
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Eduardo Ros
Max Planck Society
Mel Rose
University of Arizona
Arash Roshanineshat
University of Arizona
Helge Rottmann
Max Planck Society
Alan L. Roy
Max Planck Society
Chet Ruszczyk
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Benjamin R. Ryan
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Kazi L. J. Rygl
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
Salvador Sanchez
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
David Sanchez-Arguelles
National Council for Science and Technology Mexico
National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics
Mahito Sasada
Hiroshima University
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Tuomas Savolainen
Aalto University
F. Peter Schloerb
University of Massachusetts
Karl-Friedrich Schuster
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Lijing Shao
Max Planck Society
Beijing University of Technology
Zhiqiang Shen
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Des Small
Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE)
Bong Won Sohn
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
University of Science and Technology (UST)
Yonsei University
Jason SooHoo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Fumie Tazaki
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Paul Tiede
University of Waterloo
Remo P. J. Tilanus
University of Arizona
Radboud University
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
Leiden University
Michael Titus
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Kenji Toma
Tohoku University
Pablo Torne
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Max Planck Society
Tyler Trent
University of Arizona
Efthalia Traianou
Max Planck Society
Sascha Trippe
Seoul National University
Shuichiro Tsuda
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Ilse van Bemmel
Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE)
Huib Jan van Langevelde
Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE)
Leiden University
Daniel R. van Rossum
Radboud University
Jan Wagner
Max Planck Society
John Wardle
Brandeis University
Derek Ward-Thompson
University of Central Lancashire
Norbert Wex
Max Planck Society
Robert Wharton
Max Planck Society
Qingwen Wu
Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Doosoo Yoon
University of Amsterdam
Andre Young
Radboud University
Ken Young
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Ziri Younsi
University College London (UCL)
Goethe University Frankfurt
Feng Yuan
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Ye-Fei Yuan
University of Science and Technology of China
J. Anton Zensus
Max Planck Society
Guangyao Zhao
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
Shan-Shan Zhao
Radboud University
Nanjing University
Ziyan Zhu
Harvard University
Astrophysical Journal
0004-637X (ISSN) 1538-4357 (eISSN)
Vol. 901 1 67RadioNet 4
European Commission (EC) (EC/H2020/730562), 2017-01-01 -- 2020-12-31.
Subject Categories
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Computer Vision and Robotics (Autonomous Systems)
Medical Image Processing
Infrastructure
Onsala Space Observatory
DOI
10.3847/1538-4357/abac0d