Event-horizon-scale structure in the supermassive black hole candidate at the Galactic Centre

Details Event-horizon-scale structure in the supermassive black hole candidate at the Galactic Centre Event-horizon-scale structure in the supermassive black hole candidate at the Galactic Centre

2008-09-15

arxiv.org/abs/0809.2442v1

Nature, vol 455, p 78, 2008

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

12 pages including 2 figures

Scientific paper

10.1038/nature07245

The cores of most galaxies are thought to harbour supermassive black holes, which power galactic nuclei by converting the gravitational energy of accreting matter into radiation (ref 1). Sagittarius A*, the compact source of radio, infrared and X-ray emission at the centre of the Milky Way, is the closest example of this phenomenon, with an estimated black hole mass that is 4 million times that of the Sun (refs. 2,3). A long-standing astronomical goal is to resolve structures in the innermost accretion flow surrounding Sgr A* where strong gravitational fields will distort the appearance of radiation emitted near the black hole. Radio observations at wavelengths of 3.5 mm and 7 mm have detected intrinsic structure in Sgr A*, but the spatial resolution of observations at these wavelengths is limited by interstellar scattering (refs. 4-7). Here we report observations at a wavelength of 1.3 mm that set a size of 37 (+16, -10; 3-sigma) microarcseconds on the intrinsic diameter of Sgr A*. This is less than the expected apparent size of the event horizon of the presumed black hole, suggesting that the bulk of SgrA* emission may not be not centred on the black hole, but arises in the surrounding accretion flow.

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