Jet Launching Structure Resolved Near the Supermassive Black Hole in M87
Abstract
Approximately 10% of active galactic nuclei exhibit relativistic jets, which are powered by accretion of matter onto super massive black holes. While the measured width profiles of such jets on large scales agree with theories of magnetic collimation, predicted structure on accretion disk scales at the jet launch point has not been detected. We report radio interferometry observations at 1.3mm wavelength of the elliptical galaxy M87 that spatially resolve the base of the jet in this source. The derived size of 5.5 +/- 0.4 Schwarzschild radii is significantly smaller than the innermost edge of a retrograde accretion disk, suggesting that the M87 jet is powered by an accretion disk in a prograde orbit around a spinning black hole.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1210.6132,
title = {Jet Launching Structure Resolved Near the Supermassive Black Hole in M87},
author = {Sheperd S. Doeleman and Vincent L. Fish and David E. Schenck and Christopher Beaudoin and Ray Blundell and Geoffrey C. Bower and Avery E. Broderick and Richard Chamberlin and Robert Freund and Per Friberg and Mark A. Gurwell and Paul T. P. Ho and Mareki Honma and Makoto Inoue and Thomas P. Krichbaum and James Lamb and Abraham Loeb and Colin Lonsdale and Daniel P. Marrone and James M. Moran and Tomoaki Oyama and Richard Plambeck and Rurik A. Primiani and Alan E. E. Rogers and Daniel L. Smythe and Jason SooHoo and Peter Strittmatter and Remo P. J. Tilanus and Michael Titus and Jonathan Weintroub and Melvyn Wright and Ken H. Young and Lucy M. Ziurys},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1210.6132},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
12 pages, 3 figures, accepted version