[SEMINARI] Dinnertime for SgrA* (The Black Hole in the Center of OUR Galaxy)

[Enric Marco]

Title: Dinnertime for SgrA* (The Black Hole in the Center of OUR Galaxy)

By: James Moran

From: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Where: Saló de Graus de Facultat de Matemàtiques

Date: Dimarts 02 octubre 2012

Time: 15:00

Resum

I will describe the developing efforts to image the environs of the
black hole in the center of our galaxy at 230 GHz and higher with Very
Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). The VLBI Array is called the
Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). At 230 GHz the interstellar scattering
and the source optical depth are sufficiently small that the immediate
vicinity of the black hole can be discerned. The size of this image
has a diameter of about 37 microarcseconds or about 4 Schwarzschild
radii. Image quality should improve rapidly in the coming years as the
EHT is formed and may provide new insight about general relativity in
the strong gravity limit. We are at a phase of development similar to
that of imaging  Cygnus A in the early 1950s. Plans are under way to
image SgrA* next spring when the newly discovered orbiting earth-sized
mass, now known as "G2", will be tidally disrupted as it passes
perihelion and may cause electromagnetic flaring activity.
I will also describe the imaging of the innermost parts of the jets
driven by the black holes in M87 and  another AGN, 1924-293.

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Dr. Enric Marco
Departament d'Astronomia i Astrofísica
Facultat de Física
Universitat de València
C/  Dr. Moliner, 50
46100 Burjassot, Spain
Phone: (34)-96-354-3069
Fax:(34)-96-354-3084
enric.marco en uv.es
www.uv.es/marco
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