Report

Jet-Launching Structure Resolved Near the Supermassive Black Hole in M87

  1. Sheperd S. Doeleman1,2,*,
  2. Vincent L. Fish1,
  3. David E. Schenck1,3,†,
  4. Christopher Beaudoin1,
  5. Ray Blundell2,
  6. Geoffrey C. Bower4,
  7. Avery E. Broderick5,6,
  8. Richard Chamberlin7,
  9. Robert Freund3,
  10. Per Friberg8,
  11. Mark A. Gurwell2,
  12. Paul T. P. Ho9,
  13. Mareki Honma10,11,
  14. Makoto Inoue9,
  15. Thomas P. Krichbaum12,
  16. James Lamb13,
  17. Abraham Loeb2,
  18. Colin Lonsdale1,
  19. Daniel P. Marrone3,
  20. James M. Moran2,
  21. Tomoaki Oyama10,
  22. Richard Plambeck4,
  23. Rurik A. Primiani2,
  24. Alan E. E. Rogers1,
  25. Daniel L. Smythe1,
  26. Jason SooHoo1,
  27. Peter Strittmatter3,
  28. Remo P. J. Tilanus8,14,
  29. Michael Titus1,
  30. Jonathan Weintroub2,
  31. Melvyn Wright4,
  32. Ken H. Young2,
  33. Lucy M. Ziurys3
  1. 1MIT Haystack Observatory, Off Route 40, Westford, MA 01886, USA.
  2. 2Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
  3. 3Steward Observatory, Arizona Radio Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721–0065, USA.
  4. 4Department of Astronomy, University of California Berkeley, Hearst Field Annex, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
  5. 5Perimeter Institute, 31 Caroline Street, North Waterloo, Ontario N2L 2Y5, Canada.
  6. 6Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2l 3G1, Canada.
  7. 7Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, 111 Nowelo Street, Hilo, HI 96720, USA.
  8. 8James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, Joint Astronomy Centre, 660 North A'ohoku Place University Park, Hilo, HI 96720, USA.
  9. 9Academia Sinica Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, 11F Astronomy-Mathematics Building, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Roosevelt Road, Section 4 Taipei 10617, Taiwan, R.O.C.
  10. 10National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan.
  11. 11The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan.
  12. 12Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany.
  13. 13Owens Valley Radio Observatory, California Institute of Technology, 100 Leighton Lane, Big Pine, CA 93513–0968, USA.
  14. 14Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, Laan van Nieuw Oost-Indie 300, NL2509 AC The Hague, Netherlands.
  1. ↵*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sdoeleman{at}haystack.mit.edu

  • ↵† Present address: Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, 391 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.

Science  19 Oct 2012:
Vol. 338, Issue 6105, pp. 355-358
DOI: 10.1126/science.1224768

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Abstract

Approximately 10% of active galactic nuclei exhibit relativistic jets, which are powered by the accretion of matter onto supermassive black holes. Although the measured width profiles of such jets on large scales agree with theories of magnetic collimation, the predicted structure on accretion disk scales at the jet launch point has not been detected. We report radio interferometry observations, at a wavelength of 1.3 millimeters, 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.

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  • Jet-Launching Structure Resolved Near the Supermassive Black Hole in M87

    By Sheperd S. Doeleman, Vincent L. Fish, David E. Schenck, Christopher Beaudoin, Ray Blundell, Geoffrey C. Bower, Avery E. Broderick, Richard Chamberlin, Robert Freund, Per Friberg, Mark A. Gurwell, Paul T. P. Ho, Mareki Honma, Makoto Inoue, Thomas P. Krichbaum, James Lamb, Abraham Loeb, Colin Lonsdale, Daniel P. Marrone, James M. Moran, Tomoaki Oyama, Richard Plambeck, Rurik A. Primiani, Alan E. E. Rogers, Daniel L. Smythe, Jason SooHoo, Peter Strittmatter, Remo P. J. Tilanus, Michael Titus, Jonathan Weintroub, Melvyn Wright, Ken H. Young, Lucy M. Ziurys

    Science : 355-358

    High-resolution observations of the jet in the galaxy M87 probe structures very close to the galaxy’s central black hole.

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