Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 338, Issue 6105, Pages 355-358Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1224768
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- NSF
- NSF University Radio Observatories (URO) [AST-1140030]
- ATI [AST-0905844]
- CARMA partner universities
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences [0838258, 0905844, 0908731, 907890] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1211539, 1140031] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [24540242] Funding Source: KAKEN
Ask authors/readers for more resources
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.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available