High-resolution Millimeter-VLBI Imaging of Sgr A*

Abstract

We present the highest resolution VLBI imaging observations of Sgr A* made at both 7 and 3.5 mm. These data reveal wavelength-dependent intrinsic sizes with an intrinsic emitting region at 3.5 mm of about 1 AU (at a distance of 8 kpc to the Galactic Center). When combined with the lower limit on the mass of Sgr A*, these size measurements provide strong evidence that Sgr A* is a super-massive black hole. We also detected a structural variation which results in an intrinsically symmetrical structure that increases in its intrinsic size by more than 25% at 7 mm.

4 pages, Contribution to the proceedings of the Galactic Center Workshop 2006 "From the Center of the Milky Way to Nearby Low-Luminosity Galactic Nuclei", held in Bad Honnef, Germany on April 18 - 22, 2006. Editors: R. Schoedel (University of Cologne), et al.. To be published in the Journal of Physics: Conference Series by Institute of Physics Publishing

References in corpus (1)

• Testing RIAF model for Sgr A* using the size measurements

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Jet-lag in Sgr A*: What size and timing measurements tell us about the central black hole in the Milky Way
• Spherically Symmetric Accretion Flows: Minimal Model with MHD Turbulence