Monitoring the Morphology of M87* in 2009-2017 with the Event Horizon Telescope
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 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

Författare

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 Universiteit

Michael D. Johnson

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Harvard University

Thomas P. Krichbaum

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Ru-Sen Lu

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

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

Universiteit Van 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

Universiteit Van 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

Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucía (IAA)

Walter Alef

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Keiichi Asada

Academia Sinica

Rebecca Azulay

Universitat de Valencia

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Anne-Kathrin Baczko

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

David Ball

University of Arizona

Mislav Balokovic

Harvard University

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Enrico Barausse

SISSA Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati

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 Universiteit

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 Universiteit

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, Rymd-, geo- och miljövetenskap, Onsala rymdobservatorium

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 Universiteit

Mariafelicia De Laurentis

Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare

Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main

Roger Deane

Universiteit van Pretoria

Rhodes University

Jessica Dempsey

East Asian Observatory

Gregory Desvignes

Université Paris Descartes

Sergio A. Dzib

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Ralph P. Eatough

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Heino Falcke

Radboud Universiteit

Ed Fomalont

National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Raquel Fraga-Encinas

Radboud Universiteit

Per Friberg

East Asian Observatory

Christian M. Fromm

Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main

Peter Galison

Harvard University

Roberto Garcia

Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)

Olivier Gentaz

Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)

Ciriaco Goddi

Radboud Universiteit

Universiteit Leiden

Roman Gold

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

Syddansk Universitet

Jose L. Gomez

Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucía (IAA)

Arturo I. Gomez-Ruiz

Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrońica

Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia Mexico

Minfeng Gu

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Mark Gurwell

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Michael H. Hecht

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Ronald Hesper

Rijksuniversiteit 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

Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrońica

Makoto Inoue

Academia Sinica

David J. James

ASTRAVEO

Buell T. Jannuzi

University of Arizona

Michael Janssen

Radboud Universiteit

Britton Jeter

University of Waterloo

Wu Jiang

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Alejandra Jimenez-Rosales

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

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-Gesellschaft

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-Gesellschaft

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-Gesellschaft

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, Rymd-, geo- och miljövetenskap, Onsala rymdobservatorium

Rocco Lico

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Kuo Liu

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Elisabetta Liuzzo

Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)

Wen-Ping Lo

National Taiwan University

Universiteit Van Amsterdam

Andrei P. Lobanov

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Colin Lonsdale

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Nicholas R. MacDonald

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Jirong Mao

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nicola Marchili

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

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-Gesellschaft

Yosuke Mizuno

Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main

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 Universiteit

Cornelia Mueller

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Radboud Universiteit

Gibwa Musoke

Universiteit Van Amsterdam

Radboud Universiteit

Hiroshi Nagai

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI)

Neil M. Nagar

Universidad de Concepción

Masanori Nakamura

Academia Sinica

Ramesh Narayan

Harvard University

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Gopal Narayanan

University of Massachusetts

Iniyan Natarajan

Rhodes University

Antonios Nathanail

Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main

Roberto Neri

Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)

Chunchong Ni

University of Waterloo

Universiteit Van Amsterdam

Aristeidis Noutsos

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Hiroki Okino

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

University of Tokyo

Hector Olivares

Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main

Gisela N. Ortiz-Leon

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

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

Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main

Universiteit Van 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

Universidad de Concepción

Ramprasad Rao

Academia Sinica

Mark G. Rawlings

East Asian Observatory

Alexander W. Raymond

Harvard University

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Luciano Rezzolla

Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main

Trinity College Dublin

Bart Ripperda

Princeton University

Flatiron Institute

Freek Roelofs

Radboud Universiteit

Alan Rogers

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Eduardo Ros

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Mel Rose

University of Arizona

Arash Roshanineshat

University of Arizona

Helge Rottmann

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Alan L. Roy

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

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

Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia Mexico

Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrońica

Mahito Sasada

Hiroshima University

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

Tuomas Savolainen

Aalto-Yliopisto

F. Peter Schloerb

University of Massachusetts

Karl-Friedrich Schuster

Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)

Lijing Shao

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

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 Universiteit

Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)

Universiteit Leiden

Michael Titus

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Kenji Toma

Tohoku University

Pablo Torne

Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Tyler Trent

University of Arizona

Efthalia Traianou

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

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)

Universiteit Leiden

Daniel R. van Rossum

Radboud Universiteit

Jan Wagner

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

John Wardle

Brandeis University

Derek Ward-Thompson

University of Central Lancashire

Norbert Wex

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Robert Wharton

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Qingwen Wu

Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Doosoo Yoon

Universiteit Van Amsterdam

Andre Young

Radboud Universiteit

Ken Young

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Ziri Younsi

University College London (UCL)

Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main

Feng Yuan

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Ye-Fei Yuan

University of Science and Technology of China

J. Anton Zensus

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Guangyao Zhao

Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute

Shan-Shan Zhao

Radboud Universiteit

Nanjing University

Ziyan Zhu

Harvard University

Astrophysical Journal

0004-637X (ISSN) 1538-4357 (eISSN)

Vol. 901 1 67

RadioNet 4

Europeiska kommissionen (EU) (EC/H2020/730562), 2017-01-01 -- 2020-12-31.

Ämneskategorier

Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi

Datorseende och robotik (autonoma system)

Medicinsk bildbehandling

Infrastruktur

Onsala rymdobservatorium

DOI

10.3847/1538-4357/abac0d

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2023-03-14