scholarly journals Seeing Black Holes: From the Computer to the Telescope

Universe ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
pp. 86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Pierre Luminet

Astronomical observations are about to deliver the very first telescopic image of the massive black hole lurking at the Galactic Center. The mass of data collected in one night by the Event Horizon Telescope network, exceeding everything that has ever been done in any scientific field, should provide a recomposed image in 2018. All this, forty years after the first numerical simulations performed by the present author.

1998 ◽  
Vol 184 ◽  
pp. 485-486
Author(s):  
H. Fukuda ◽  
A. Habe ◽  
K. Wada

Nuclear activities in galaxies, such as nuclear starbursts or AGNs, are supposed to be induced by gas fueling into nuclear regions of galaxies. Non-axisymmetric gravitational potential caused by a stellar bar is a convincing mechanism for triggering gas fueling (Phinney 1994). However, numerical simulations have shown that the bar can not force the gas to accrete toward the galactic center beyond the inner Lindblad resonance (ILR). As a mechanism to overcome the ILR barrier, the double barred structure (Friedli & Martinet 1993), or the self-gravity of gas (Wada & Habe 1992, 1995; Elmegreen 1994) are proposed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (S330) ◽  
pp. 360-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taihei Yano ◽  

AbstractSmall-JASMINE (hearafter SJ), infrared astrometric satellite, will measure the positions and the proper motions which are located around the Galactic center, by operating at near infrared wave-lengths. SJ will clarify the formation process of the super massive black hole (hearafter SMBH) at the Galactic center. In particular, SJ will determine whether the SMBH was formed by a sequential merging of multiple black holes. The clarification of this formation process of the SMBH will contribute to a better understanding of merging process of satellite galaxies into the Galaxy, which is suggested by the standard galaxy formation scenario. A numerical simulation (Tanikawa and Umemura, 2014) suggests that if the SMBH was formed by the merging process, then the dynamical friction caused by the black holes have influenced the phase space distribution of stars. The phase space distribution measured by SJ will make it possible to determine the occurrences of the merging process.


2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 1937-1940
Author(s):  
PASCAL CHARDONNET ◽  
ANNA CHIAPPINELLI

The center of our Galaxy provides a uniquely accessible laboratory. It is a rich environment of extreme density, velocity and tidal fields of stars. It is the closest example of a galactic nucleus and could give the opportunity to understand the role that massive black-holes play in the formation and evolution of galaxies. It could be used to test the effects of relativity and dark matter in the Galactic Center. If the central object is a black-hole such observation would be a milstone: the first direct proof that an event horizon, and therefore a black-hole exists. The next decade will be decisive in new discoveries.


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S261) ◽  
pp. 271-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent L. Fish ◽  
Sheperd S. Doeleman

AbstractVery strong evidence suggests that Sagittarius A*, a compact radio source at the center of the Milky Way, marks the position of a super massive black hole. The proximity of Sgr A* in combination with its mass makes its apparent event horizon the largest of any black hole candidate in the universe and presents us with a unique opportunity to observe strong-field GR effects. Recent millimeter very long baseline interferometric observations of Sgr A* have demonstrated the existence of structures on scales comparable to the Schwarzschild radius. These observations already provide strong evidence in support of the existence of an event horizon. (Sub)Millimeter VLBI observations in the near future will combine the angular resolution necessary to identify the overall morphology of quiescent emission, such as an accretion disk or outflow, with a fine enough time resolution to detect possible periodicity in the variable component of emission. In the next few years, it may be possible to identify the spin of the black hole in Sgr A*, either by detecting the periodic signature of hot spots at the innermost stable circular orbit or parameter estimation in models of the quiescent emission. Longer term, a (sub)millimeter VLBI “Event Horizon Telescope” will be able to produce images of the Galactic center emission to the see the silhouette predicted by general relativistic lensing. These techniques are also applicable to the black hole in M87, where black hole spin may be key to understanding the jet-launching region.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (14) ◽  
pp. 1930024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dipanjan Dey ◽  
Pankaj S. Joshi ◽  
Ashok Joshi ◽  
Parth Bambhaniya

While the event horizon of a black hole could cast a shadow that was observed recently, a central singularity without horizon could also give rise to such a feature. This leaves us with a question on the nature of the supermassive black holes at the galactic centers, and if they admit an event horizon necessarily. We point out that observations of motion of stars around the galactic center should give a clear idea of the nature of this central supermassive object. We examine and discuss here recent developments that indicate intriguing behavior of the star motions that could possibly distinguish the existence or otherwise of an event horizon at the galactic center. We compare the motion of the S2 star with these theoretical results, fitting the observational data with theory, and it is seen that the star motions and precession of their orbits around the galactic center provide important clues on the nature of this central compact object.


2009 ◽  
Vol 692 (2) ◽  
pp. 1075-1109 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Gillessen ◽  
F. Eisenhauer ◽  
S. Trippe ◽  
T. Alexander ◽  
R. Genzel ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (S316) ◽  
pp. 240-245
Author(s):  
Nora Lützgendorf ◽  
Markus Kissler-Patig ◽  
Karl Gebhardt ◽  
Holger Baumgardt ◽  
Diederik Kruijssen ◽  
...  

AbstractThe study of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) is a young and promising field of research. If IMBH exist, they could explain the rapid growth of supermassive black holes by acting as seeds in the early stage of galaxy formation. Formed by runaway collisions of massive stars in young and dense stellar clusters, intermediate-mass black holes could still be present in the centers of globular clusters, today. We measured the inner kinematic profiles with integral-field spectroscopy for 10 Galactic globular cluster and determined masses or upper limits of central black holes. In combination with literature data we further studied the positions of our results on known black-hole scaling relations (such as M• − σ) and found a similar but flatter correlation for IMBHs. Applying cluster evolution codes, the change in the slope could be explained with the stellar mass loss occurring in clusters in a tidal field over its life time. Furthermore, we present results from several numerical simulations on the topic of IMBHs and integral field units (IFUs). N-body simulations were used to simulate IFU data cubes. For the specific case of NGC 6388 we simulated two different IFU techniques and found that velocity dispersion measurements from individual velocities are strongly biased towards lower values due to blends of neighbouring stars and background light. In addition, we use the Astrophysical Multipurpose Software Environment (AMUSE) to combine gravitational physics, stellar evolution and hydrodynamics to simulate the accretion of stellar winds onto a black hole. We find that the S-stars need to provide very strong winds in order to explain the accretion rate in the galactic center.


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (14) ◽  
pp. 999-1007 ◽  
Author(s):  
JERZY MATYJASEK ◽  
KATARZYNA ZWIERZCHOWSKA

Perturbative solutions to the fourth-order gravity describing spherically-symmetric, static and electrically charged black hole in an asymptotically de Sitter universe is constructed and discussed. Special emphasis is put on the lukewarm configurations, in which the temperature of the event horizon equals the temperature of the cosmological horizon.


Author(s):  
Timothy Clifton

By studying objects outside our Solar System, we can observe star systems with far greater gravitational fields. ‘Extrasolar tests of gravity’ considers stars of different sizes that have undergone gravitational collapse, including white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes. A black hole consists of a region of space-time enclosed by a surface called an event horizon. The gravitational field of a black hole is so strong that anything that finds its way inside the event horizon can never escape. Other star systems considered are binary pulsars and triple star systems. With the invention of even more powerful telescopes, there will be more tantalizing possibilities for testing gravity in the future.


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