Viewing the Shadow of the Black Hole at the Galactic Center

Details Viewing the Shadow of the Black Hole at the Galactic Center Viewing the Shadow of the Black Hole at the Galactic Center

1999-12-14

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9912263v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

5 pages, 1 figure (color), (AAS)Tex, to appear in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 528, L13 (Jan 1, 2000 issue); also a

Scientific paper

10.1086/312423

In recent years, the evidence for the existence of an ultra-compact concentration of dark mass associated with the radio source Sgr A* in the Galactic Center has become very strong. However, an unambiguous proof that this object is indeed a black hole is still lacking. A defining characteristic of a black hole is the event horizon. To a distant observer, the event horizon casts a relatively large ``shadow'' with an apparent diameter of ~10 gravitational radii due to bending of light by the black hole, nearly independent of the black hole spin or orientation. The predicted size (~30 micro-arcseconds) of this shadow for Sgr A* approaches the resolution of current radio-interferometers. If the black hole is maximally spinning and viewed edge-on, then the shadow will be offset by ~8 micro-arcseconds from the center of mass, and will be slightly flattened on one side. Taking into account scatter-broadening of the image in the interstellar medium and the finite achievable telescope resolution, we show that the shadow of Sgr A* may be observable with very long-baseline interferometry at sub-millimeter wavelengths, assuming that the accretion flow is optically thin in this region of the spectrum. Hence, there exists a realistic expectation of imaging the event horizon of a black hole within the next few years.

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