First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole in the Center of the Milky Way

DOI: 
10.3847/2041-8213/ac6674
Publication date: 
08/05/2022
Main author: 
Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration
IAA authors: 
Alberdi, Antxon;Cho, Ilje;Fuentes, Antonio;Gómez, José L.;Lico, Rocco;Traianou, Efthalia;Zhao, Guang-Yao
Authors: 
Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration;Akiyama, Kazunori;Alberdi, Antxon;Alef, Walter;Algaba, Juan Carlos;Anantua, Richard;Asada, Keiichi;Azulay, Rebecca;Bach, Uwe;Baczko, Anne-Kathrin;Ball, David;Baloković, Mislav;Barrett, John;Bauböck, Michi;Benson, Bradford A.;Bintley, Dan;Blackburn, Lindy;Blundell, Raymond;Bouman, Katherine L.;Bower, Geoffrey C.;Boyce, Hope;Bremer, Michael;Brinkerink, Christiaan D.;Brissenden, Roger;Britzen, Silke;Broderick, Avery E.;Broguiere, Dominique;Bronzwaer, Thomas;Bustamante, Sandra;Byun, Do-Young;Carlstrom, John E.;Ceccobello, Chiara;Chael, Andrew;Chan, Chi-kwan;Chatterjee, Koushik;Chatterjee, Shami;Chen, Ming-Tang;Chen, Yongjun;Cheng, Xiaopeng;Cho, Ilje;Christian, Pierre;Conroy, Nicholas S.;Conway, John E.;Cordes, James M.;Crawford, Thomas M.;Crew, Geoffrey B.;Cruz-Osorio, Alejandro;Cui, Yuzhu;Davelaar, Jordy;Laurentis, Mariafelicia De;Deane, Roger;Dempsey, Jessica;Desvignes, Gregory;Dexter, Jason;Dhruv, Vedant;Doeleman, Sheperd S.;Dougal, Sean;Dzib, Sergio A.;Eatough, Ralph P.;Emami, Razieh;Falcke, Heino;Farah, Joseph;Fish, Vincent L.;Fomalont, Ed;Ford, H. Alyson;Fraga-Encinas, Raquel;Freeman, William T.;Friberg, Per;Fromm, Christian M.;Fuentes, Antonio;Galison, Peter;Gammie, Charles F.;García, Roberto;Gentaz, Olivier;Georgiev, Boris;Goddi, Ciriaco;Gold, Roman;Gómez-Ruiz, Arturo I.;Gómez, José L.;Gu, Minfeng;Gurwell, Mark;Hada, Kazuhiro;Haggard, Daryl;Haworth, Kari;Hecht, Michael H.;Hesper, Ronald;Heumann, Dirk;Ho, Luis C.;Ho, Paul;Honma, Mareki;Huang, Chih-Wei L.;Huang, Lei;Hughes, David H.;Ikeda, Shiro;Impellizzeri, C. M. Violette;Inoue, Makoto;Issaoun, Sara;James, David J.;Jannuzi, Buell T.;Janssen, Michael;Jeter, Britton;Jiang, Wu;Jiménez-Rosales, Alejandra;Johnson, Michael D.;Jorstad, Svetlana;Joshi, Abhishek V.;Jung, Taehyun;Karami, Mansour;Karuppusamy, Ramesh;Kawashima, Tomohisa;Keating, Garrett K.;Kettenis, Mark;Kim, Dong-Jin;Kim, Jae-Young;Kim, Jongsoo;Kim, Junhan;Kino, Motoki;Koay, Jun Yi;Kocherlakota, Prashant;Kofuji, Yutaro;Koch, Patrick M.;Koyama, Shoko;Kramer, Carsten;Kramer, Michael;Krichbaum, Thomas P.;Kuo, Cheng-Yu;Bella, Noemi La;Lauer, Tod R.;Lee, Daeyoung;Lee, Sang-Sung;Leung, Po Kin;Levis, Aviad;Li, Zhiyuan;Lico, Rocco;Lindahl, Greg;Lindqvist, Michael;Lisakov, Mikhail;Liu, Jun;Liu, Kuo;Liuzzo, Elisabetta;Lo, Wen-Ping;Lobanov, Andrei P.;Loinard, Laurent;Lonsdale, Colin J.;Lu, Ru-Sen;Mao, Jirong;Marchili, Nicola;Markoff, Sera;Marrone, Daniel P.;Marscher, Alan P.;Martí-Vidal, Iván;Matsushita, Satoki;Matthews, Lynn D.;Medeiros, Lia;Menten, Karl M.;Michalik, Daniel;Mizuno, Izumi;Mizuno, Yosuke;Moran, James M.;Moriyama, Kotaro;Moscibrodzka, Monika;Müller, Cornelia;Mus, Alejandro;Musoke, Gibwa;Myserlis, Ioannis;Nadolski, Andrew;Nagai, Hiroshi;Nagar, Neil M.;Nakamura, Masanori;Narayan, Ramesh;Narayanan, Gopal;Natarajan, Iniyan;Nathanail, Antonios;Fuentes, Santiago Navarro;Neilsen, Joey;Neri, Roberto;Ni, Chunchong;Noutsos, Aristeidis;Nowak, Michael A.;Oh, Junghwan;Okino, Hiroki;Olivares, Héctor;Ortiz-León, Gisela N.;Oyama, Tomoaki;Özel, Feryal;Palumbo, Daniel C. M.;Paraschos, Georgios Filippos;Park, Jongho;Parsons, Harriet;Patel, Nimesh;Pen, Ue-Li;Pesce, Dominic W.;Piétu, Vincent;Plambeck, Richard;PopStefanija, Aleksandar;Porth, Oliver;Pötzl, Felix M.;Prather, Ben;Preciado-López, Jorge A.;Psaltis, Dimitrios;Pu, Hung-Yi;Ramakrishnan, Venkatessh;Rao, Ramprasad;Rawlings, Mark G.;Raymond, Alexander W.;Rezzolla, Luciano;Ricarte, Angelo;Ripperda, Bart;Roelofs, Freek;Rogers, Alan;Ros, Eduardo;Romero-Cañizales, Cristina;Roshanineshat, Arash;Rottmann, Helge;Roy, Alan L.;Ruiz, Ignacio;Ruszczyk, Chet;Rygl, Kazi L. J.;Sánchez, Salvador;Sánchez-Argüelles, David;Sánchez-Portal, Miguel;Sasada, Mahito;Satapathy, Kaushik;Savolainen, Tuomas;Schloerb, F. Peter;Schonfeld, Jonathan;Schuster, Karl-Friedrich;Shao, Lijing;Shen, Zhiqiang;Small, Des;Sohn, Bong Won;SooHoo, Jason;Souccar, Kamal;Sun, He;Tazaki, Fumie;Tetarenko, Alexandra J.;Tiede, Paul;Tilanus, Remo P. J.;Titus, Michael;Torne, Pablo;Traianou, Efthalia;Trent, Tyler;Trippe, Sascha;Turk, Matthew;van Bemmel, Ilse;van Langevelde, Huib Jan;van Rossum, Daniel R.;Vos, Jesse;Wagner, Jan;Ward-Thompson, Derek;Wardle, John;Weintroub, Jonathan;Wex, Norbert;Wharton, Robert;Wielgus, Maciek;Wiik, Kaj;Witzel, Gunther;Wondrak, Michael F.;Wong, George N.;Wu, Qingwen;Yamaguchi, Paul;Yoon, Doosoo;Young, André;Young, Ken;Younsi, Ziri;Yuan, Feng;Yuan, Ye-Fei;Zensus, J. Anton;Zhang, Shuo;Zhao, Guang-Yao;Zhao, Shan-Shan;Agurto, Claudio;Allardi, Alexander;Amestica, Rodrigo;Araneda, Juan Pablo;Arriagada, Oriel;Berghuis, Jennie L.;Bertarini, Alessandra;Berthold, Ryan;Blanchard, Jay;Brown, Ken;Cárdenas, Mauricio;Cantzler, Michael;Caro, Patricio;Castillo-Domínguez, Edgar;Chan, Tin Lok;Chang, Chih-Cheng;Chang, Dominic O.;Chang, Shu-Hao;Chang, Song-Chu;Chen, Chung-Chen;Chilson, Ryan;Chuter, Tim C.;Ciechanowicz, Miroslaw;Colin-Beltran, Edgar;Coulson, Iain M.;Crowley, Joseph;Degenaar, Nathalie;Dornbusch, Sven;Durán, Carlos A.;Everett, Wendeline B.;Faber, Aaron;Forster, Karl;Fuchs, Miriam M.;Gale, David M.;Geertsema, Gertie;González, Edouard;Graham, Dave;Gueth, Frédéric;Halverson, Nils W.;Han, Chih-Chiang;Han, Kuo-Chang;Hasegawa, Yutaka;Hernández-Rebollar, José Luis;Herrera, Cristian;Herrero-Illana, Ruben;Heyminck, Stefan;Hirota, Akihiko;Hoge, James;Hostler Schimpf, Shelbi R.;Howie, Ryan E.;Huang, Yau-De;Jiang, Homin;Jinchi, Hao;John, David;Kimura, Kimihiro;Klein, Thomas;Kubo, Derek;Kuroda, John;Kwon, Caleb;Lacasse, Richard;Laing, Robert;Leitch, Erik M.;Li, Chao-Te;Liu, Ching-Tang;Liu, Kuan-Yu;Lin, Lupin C. -C.;Lu, Li-Ming;Mac-Auliffe, Felipe;Martin-Cocher, Pierre;Matulonis, Callie;Maute, John K.;Messias, Hugo;Meyer-Zhao, Zheng;Montaña, Alfredo;Montenegro-Montes, Francisco;Montgomerie, William;Moreno Nolasco, Marcos Emir;Muders, Dirk;Nishioka, Hiroaki;Norton, Timothy J.;Nystrom, George;Ogawa, Hideo;Olivares, Rodrigo;Oshiro, Peter;Pérez-Beaupuits, Juan Pablo;Parra, Rodrigo;Phillips, Neil M.;Poirier, Michael;Pradel, Nicolas;Qiu, Richard;Raffin, Philippe A.;Rahlin, Alexandra S.;Ramírez, Jorge;Ressler, Sean;Reynolds, Mark;Rodríguez-Montoya, Iván;Saez-Madain, Alejandro F.;Santana, Jorge;Shaw, Paul;Shirkey, Leslie E.;Silva, Kevin M.;Snow, William;Sousa, Don;Sridharan, T. K.;Stahm, William;Stark, Anthony A.;Test, John;Torstensson, Karl;Venegas, Paulina;Walther, Craig;Wei, Ta-Shun;White, Chris;Wieching, Gundolf;Wijnands, Rudy;Wouterloot, Jan G. A.;Yu, Chen-Yu;Yu (于威), Wei;Zeballos, Milagros
Journal: 
The Astrophysical Journal
Publication type: 
Article
Volume: 
930
Pages: 
L12
Abstract: 
We present the first Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the Galactic center source associated with a supermassive black hole. These observations were conducted in 2017 using a global interferometric array of eight telescopes operating at a wavelength of λ = 1.3 mm. The EHT data resolve a compact emission region with intrahour variability. A variety of imaging and modeling analyses all support an image that is dominated by a bright, thick ring with a diameter of 51.8 ± 2.3 μas (68% credible interval). The ring has modest azimuthal brightness asymmetry and a comparatively dim interior. Using a large suite of numerical simulations, we demonstrate that the EHT images of Sgr A* are consistent with the expected appearance of a Kerr black hole with mass ~4 × 10<SUP>6</SUP> M <SUB>⊙</SUB>, which is inferred to exist at this location based on previous infrared observations of individual stellar orbits, as well as maser proper-motion studies. Our model comparisons disfavor scenarios where the black hole is viewed at high inclination (i &gt; 50°), as well as nonspinning black holes and those with retrograde accretion disks. Our results provide direct evidence for the presence of a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, and for the first time we connect the predictions from dynamical measurements of stellar orbits on scales of 10<SUP>3</SUP>-10<SUP>5</SUP> gravitational radii to event-horizon-scale images and variability. Furthermore, a comparison with the EHT results for the supermassive black hole M87* shows consistency with the predictions of general relativity spanning over three orders of magnitude in central mass.
Database: 
ADS
SCOPUS
URL: 
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/#abs/2022ApJ...930L..12E/abstract
ADS Bibcode: 
2022ApJ...930L..12E
Keywords: 
Black holes;Kerr black holes;Rotating black holes;Heterodyne interferometry;Galactic center;162;886;1406;726;565