Event Horizon Telescope observations of the jet launching and collimation in Centaurus A

DOI: 
10.1038/s41550-021-01417-w
Publication date: 
24/07/2021
Main author: 
Janssen, Michael
IAA authors: 
Gómez, José L.;Alberdi, Antxon;Gelles, Zachary
Authors: 
Janssen, Michael;Falcke, Heino;Kadler, Matthias;Ros, Eduardo;Wielgus, Maciek;Akiyama, Kazunori;Baloković, Mislav;Blackburn, Lindy;Bouman, Katherine L.;Chael, Andrew;Chan, Chi-kwan;Chatterjee, Koushik;Davelaar, Jordy;Edwards, Philip G.;Fromm, Christian M.;Gómez, José L.;Goddi, Ciriaco;Issaoun, Sara;Johnson, Michael D.;Kim, Junhan;Koay, Jun Yi;Krichbaum, Thomas P.;Liu, Jun;Liuzzo, Elisabetta;Markoff, Sera;Markowitz, Alex;Marrone, Daniel P.;Mizuno, Yosuke;Müller, Cornelia;Ni, Chunchong;Pesce, Dominic W.;Ramakrishnan, Venkatessh;Roelofs, Freek;Rygl, Kazi L. J.;van Bemmel, Ilse;Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration;Alberdi, Antxon;Alef, Walter;Algaba, Juan Carlos;Anantua, Richard;Asada, Keiichi;Azulay, Rebecca;Baczko, Anne-Kathrin;Ball, David;Ball, David;Barrett, John;Benson, Bradford A.;Bintley, Dan;Bintley, Dan;Blundell, Raymond;Boland, Wilfred;Boland, Wilfred;Bower, Geoffrey C.;Boyce, Hope;Bremer, Michael;Brinkerink, Christiaan D.;Brissenden, Roger;Britzen, Silke;Broderick, Avery E.;Broguiere, Dominique;Bronzwaer, Thomas;Byun, Do-Young;Carlstrom, John E.;Chatterjee, Shami;Chen, Ming-Tang;Chen, Yongjun;Chesler, Paul M.;Cho, Ilje;Christian, Pierre;Conway, John E.;Cordes, James M.;Crawford, Thomas M.;Crew, Geoffrey B.;Cruz-Osorio, Alejandro;Cui, Yuzhu;Cui, Yuzhu;De Laurentis, Mariafelicia;Deane, Roger;Dempsey, Jessica;Desvignes, Gregory;Dexter, Jason;Doeleman, Sheperd S.;Eatough, Ralph P.;Farah, Joseph;Farah, Joseph;Fish, Vincent L.;Fomalont, Ed;Ford, H. Alyson;Fraga-Encinas, Raquel;Friberg, Per;Friberg, Per;Fuentes, Antonio;Galison, Peter;Gammie, Charles F.;García, Roberto;Gelles, Zachary;Gentaz, Olivier;Georgiev, Boris;Georgiev, Boris;Gold, Roman;Gold, Roman;Gómez-Ruiz, Arturo I.;Gu, Minfeng;Gurwell, Mark;Hada, Kazuhiro;Haggard, Daryl;Hecht, Michael H.;Hesper, Ronald;Himwich, Elizabeth;Ho, Luis C.;Ho, Paul;Honma, Mareki;Huang, Chih-Wei L.;Huang, Lei;Hughes, David H.;Ikeda, Shiro;Inoue, Makoto;Inoue, Makoto;James, David J.;Jannuzi, Buell T.;Jannuzi, Buell T.;Jeter, Britton;Jiang, Wu;Jimenez-Rosales, Alejandra;Jimenez-Rosales, Alejandra;Jorstad, Svetlana;Jung, Taehyun;Karami, Mansour;Karuppusamy, Ramesh;Kawashima, Tomohisa;Keating, Garrett K.;Kettenis, Mark;Kim, Dong-Jin;Kim, Jae-Young;Kim, Jae-Young;Kim, Jongsoo;Kino, Motoki;Kino, Motoki;Kofuji, Yutaro;Koyama, Shoko;Kramer, Michael;Kramer, Carsten;Kramer, Carsten;Kuo, Cheng-Yu;Lauer, Tod R.;Lee, Sang-Sung;Levis, Aviad;Li, Yan-Rong;Li, Zhiyuan;Lindqvist, Michael;Lico, Rocco;Lindahl, Greg;Lindahl, Greg;Liu, Kuo;Liu, Kuo;Lo, Wen-Ping;Lobanov, Andrei P.;Loinard, Laurent;Lonsdale, Colin;Lu, Ru-Sen;MacDonald, Nicholas R.;Mao, Jirong;Marchili, Nicola;Marchili, Nicola;Marchili, Nicola;Marscher, Alan P.;Martí-Vidal, Iván;Matsushita, Satoki;Matthews, Lynn D.;Medeiros, Lia;Menten, Karl M.;Mizuno, Izumi;Mizuno, Izumi;Moran, James M.;Moriyama, Kotaro;Moscibrodzka, Monika;Moscibrodzka, Monika;Musoke, Gibwa;Mejías, Alejandro Mus;Nagai, Hiroshi;Nagar, Neil M.;Nakamura, Masanori;Narayan, Ramesh;Narayanan, Gopal;Natarajan, Iniyan;Nathanail, Antonios;Neilsen, Joey;Neri, Roberto;Neri, Roberto;Noutsos, Aristeidis;Nowak, Michael A.;Okino, Hiroki;Olivares, Héctor;Ortiz-León, Gisela N.;Oyama, Tomoaki;Özel, Feryal;Palumbo, Daniel C. M.;Park, Jongho;Patel, Nimesh;Pen, Ue-Li;Pen, Ue-Li;Piétu, Vincent;Plambeck, Richard;PopStefanija, Aleksandar;Porth, Oliver;Pötzl, Felix M.;Prather, Ben;Preciado-López, Jorge A.;Psaltis, Dimitrios;Pu, Hung-Yi;Pu, Hung-Yi;Rao, Ramprasad;Rawlings, Mark G.;Raymond, Alexander W.;Rezzolla, Luciano;Ricarte, Angelo;Ripperda, Bart;Ripperda, Bart;Rogers, Alan;Rogers, Alan;Rose, Mel;Roshanineshat, Arash;Rottmann, Helge;Roy, Alan L.;Ruszczyk, Chet;Ruszczyk, Chet;Sánchez, Salvador;Sánchez-Arguelles, David;Sasada, Mahito;Savolainen, Tuomas;Schloerb, F. Peter;Schuster, Karl-Friedrich;Shao, Lijing;Shen, Zhiqiang;Small, Des;Sohn, Bong Won;SooHoo, Jason;Sun, He;Tazaki, Fumie;Tetarenko, Alexandra J.;Tiede, Paul;Tilanus, Remo P. J.;Titus, Michael;Torne, Pablo;Trent, Tyler;Traianou, Efthalia;Trippe, Sascha;van Bemmel, Ilse;van Langevelde, Huib Jan;van Rossum, Daniel R.;Wagner, Jan;Ward-Thompson, Derek;Wardle, John;Weintroub, Jonathan;Wex, Norbert;Wharton, Robert;Wharton, Robert;Wong, George N.;Wu, Qingwen;Yoon, Doosoo;Young, André;Young, Ken;Younsi, Ziri;Yuan, Feng;Yuan, Ye-Fei;Zensus, J. Anton;Zhao, Guang-Yao;Zhao, Shan-Shan
Journal: 
Nature Astronomy
Publication type: 
Article
Volume: 
5
Pages: 
1017
Abstract: 
Very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations of active galactic nuclei at millimetre wavelengths have the power to reveal the launching and initial collimation region of extragalactic radio jets, down to 10-100 gravitational radii (r<SUB>g</SUB> ≡ GM/c<SUP>2</SUP>) scales in nearby sources<SUP>1</SUP>. Centaurus A is the closest radio-loud source to Earth<SUP>2</SUP>. It bridges the gap in mass and accretion rate between the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in Messier 87 and our Galactic Centre. A large southern declination of −43° has, however, prevented VLBI imaging of Centaurus A below a wavelength of 1 cm thus far. Here we show the millimetre VLBI image of the source, which we obtained with the Event Horizon Telescope at 228 GHz. Compared with previous observations<SUP>3</SUP>, we image the jet of Centaurus A at a tenfold higher frequency and sixteen times sharper resolution and thereby probe sub-lightday structures. We reveal a highly collimated, asymmetrically edge-brightened jet as well as the fainter counterjet. We find that the source structure of Centaurus A resembles the jet in Messier 87 on ~500 r<SUB>g</SUB> scales remarkably well. Furthermore, we identify the location of Centaurus A's SMBH with respect to its resolved jet core at a wavelength of 1.3 mm and conclude that the source's event horizon shadow<SUP>4</SUP> should be visible at terahertz frequencies. This location further supports the universal scale invariance of black holes over a wide range of masses<SUP>5,6</SUP>.
Database: 
ADS
URL: 
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/#abs/2021NatAs...5.1017J/abstract
ADS Bibcode: 
2021NatAs...5.1017J
Keywords: 
Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies;Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics;Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena