Simulations of M87 and Sgr A* Imaging with the Millimetron Space Observatory on near-Earth orbits

Abstract

High resolution imaging of supermassive black holes shadows is a direct way to verify the theory of general relativity at extreme gravity conditions. Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations at millimeter/sub-millimeter wavelengths can provide such angular resolution for supermassive black holes, located in Sgr A* and M87. Recent VLBI observations of M87 with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has shown such capabilities. The maximum obtainable spatial resolution of EHT is limited by Earth diameter and atmospheric phase variations. In order to improve the image resolution longer baselines are required. Radioastron space mission has successfully demonstrated the capabilities of Space-Earth VLBI with baselines much larger than Earth diameter. Millimetron is a next space mission of the Russian Space Agency that will operate at millimeter wavelengths. Nominal orbit of the observatory will be located around Lagrangian L2 point of the Sun-Earth system. In order to optimize the VLBI mode, we consider a possible second stage of the mission that could use near-Earth high elliptical orbit (HEO). In this contribution a set of near-Earth orbits is used for the synthetic space-ground VLBI observations of Sgr A* and M87 in joint Millimetron and EHT configuration. General-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic models (GRMHD) for black hole environment of Sgr A* and M87 are used for static and dynamic imaging simulations at 230 GHz. A comparison preformed between ground and space-ground baselines demonstrates that joint observations with Millimetron and EHT significantly improve the image resolution and allow the EHT+Millimetron to obtain snapshot images of Sgr A* probing dynamics at fast timescales.

12 pages, 6 figures

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Cited by in corpus (22)

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• Analytical study of higher-order ring images of accretion disk around black hole
• Shape of higher-order images of equatorial emission rings around a Schwarzschild black hole: Analytical description with polar curves
• Observational Signatures of Frame Dragging in Strong Gravity
• Black hole parameter estimation with synthetic Very Long Baseline Interferometry data from the ground and from space
• WGC as WCCC protector: The Synergistic Effects of various Parameters in Identifying WGC candidate Models
• RadioAstron Space VLBI Imaging of the jet in M87: I. Detection of high brightness temperature at 22 GHz
• Analysis of Orbital Configurations for Millimetron Space Observatory
• An Event Horizon Imager (EHI) Mission Concept Utilizing Medium Earth Orbit Sub-mm Interferometry
• OmniUV: A Multi-Purpose Simulation Toolkit for VLBI Observation
• Accurate analytical modeling of light rays in spherically symmetric spacetimes: Applications in the study of black hole accretion disks and polarimetry
• Imaging the event horizon of M87* from space on different timescales
• Impact of the nonthermal electron radiation effects on the horizon scale image structure of Sagittarius A*
• GALLIFRAY -- A geometric modeling and parameter estimation framework for black hole images using bayesian techniques
• Effect of Earth's Oblateness on Black Hole Imaging Through Earth-Space and Space-Space VLBI
• Bondi Accretion onto a Damour-Solodukhin Wormhole
• High Resolution Imaging of a Black Hole Shadow with Millimetron Orbit around Lagrange Point L2
• Shaving off soft hairs and the black hole image memory effect
• Beyond Sgr A* and M87*: Sub-Microarcsecond Black Hole Shadow Detection via Lunar-based Extremely Long Baseline Interferometry
• Orbit design for mitigating interstellar scattering effects in Earth-space VLBI observations of Sgr A*
• Images of the accretion disk in Hybrid metric-Palatini gravity
• Decoding a black hole metric from the interferometric pattern of the relativistic images of a compact source