A lot of remarkably, just the outer edges of the jet seem to emit radiation, which challenges our theoretical models of jets. The bottom panel portrays the new highest resolution image of the jet introducing area acquired with the EHT at millimeter wavelengths with a 60000000x zoom in telescope resolution. Compared to all previous high-resolution observations, the jet introduced in Centaurus A is imaged at a significantly higher frequency and sixteen times sharper resolution. The new image shows that the jet released by Centaurus A is brighter at the edges compared to the. With the brand-new EHT observations of the Centaurus A jet, the most likely place of the black hole has been identified at the introducing point of the jet.

Composition of pictures of Centaurus A in the optical variety (ESO/WFI) and X-rays (NASA/CXC/CfA). Centaurus A is a massive galaxy that remains in the procedure of combining with a neighboring spiral. Credits: ESO/WFI (Optical), MpIfR/ESO/Apex/ A.Weiss et al. (submillimeter); NASA/CXC/CfA/ R. Kraft et al. (X-rays).
A global team anchored by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, which is understood for recording the very first image of a black hole in the galaxy Messier 87, has now imaged the heart of the neighboring radio galaxy Centaurus A in extraordinary information. The astronomers pinpoint the area of the main supermassive black hole and expose how an enormous jet is being born. A lot of incredibly, just the outer edges of the jet seem to produce radiation, which challenges our theoretical models of jets. This work, led by Michael Janssen from limit Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn and Radboud University Nijmegen is released in Nature Astronomy today (July 19th, 2021).
At radio wavelengths, Centaurus A becomes among the largest and brightest objects in the night sky. After it was determined as one of the very first recognized extragalactic radio sources in 1949, Centaurus A has been studied extensively across the entire electromagnetic spectrum by a range of radio, infrared, optical, X-ray, and gamma-ray observatories. At the center of Centaurus A lies a great void with the mass of 55 million suns, which is ideal between the mass scales of the Messier 87 great void (6 and a half billion suns) and the one in the center of our own galaxy (about four million suns).
The top left image reveals how the jet distributes into gas clouds that discharge radio waves, captured by the ATCA and Parkes observatories. The next panel below programs a 165000x zoom image of the inner radio jet obtained with the TANAMI telescopes. The bottom panel portrays the new highest resolution image of the jet launching area acquired with the EHT at millimeter wavelengths with a 60000000x zoom in telescope resolution.

Compared to all previous high-resolution observations, the jet introduced in Centaurus A is imaged at a tenfold greater frequency and sixteen times sharper resolution. With the fixing power of the EHT, we can now link the huge scales of the source, which are as big as 16 times the angular size of the Moon on the sky, to their origin near the black hole in a region of simply the width of an apple on the Moon when predicted on the sky. That is a magnification factor of one billion.
Understanding jets.
Supermassive black holes living in the center of galaxies like Centaurus A are feeding off gas and dust that is attracted by their enormous gravitational pull. This procedure releases enormous amounts of energy and the galaxy is stated to end up being active. Many matter lying close to the edge of the great void falls in. Some of the surrounding particles get away minutes before capture and are blown far out into area: Jets– one of the most mystical and energetic features of galaxies– are born.
Greatest resolution image of Centaurus A gotten with the Event Horizon Telescope on top of a color composite image of the entire galaxy. Credit: Radboud University; ESO/WFI; MPIfR/ESO/APEX/ A. Weiss et al.; NASA/CXC/CfA/ R. Kraft et al.; EHT/M. They still do not know precisely how jets are launched from its central region and how they can extend over scales that are larger than their host galaxies without distributing out.
The new image reveals that the jet launched by Centaurus A is brighter at the edges compared to the center. This phenomenon is understood from other jets, however has never ever been seen so pronouncedly previously. “Now we are able to rule out theoretical jet designs that are not able to recreate this edge-brightening. Its a striking feature that will help us much better understand jets produced by great voids,” says Matthias Kadler, TANAMI leader and professor for astrophysics at the University of Würzburg in Germany.
Recommendation: 19 July 2021, Nature Astronomy.DOI: 10.1038/ s41550-021-01417-w.
Future observations.
With the new EHT observations of the Centaurus A jet, the likely area of the black hole has been identified at the launching point of the jet. Based upon this location, the scientists anticipate that future observations at an even shorter wavelength and greater resolution would be able to photograph the central black hole of Centaurus A. This will require using space-based satellite observatories.
” These data are from the very same observing project that delivered the well-known picture of the black hole in M87. The new results reveal that the EHT offers a bonanza of data on the rich range of great voids and there is still more to come,” says Heino Falcke, EHT board member and professor for Astrophysics at Radboud University.
Background details.
To observe the Centaurus A galaxy with this unprecedentedly sharp resolution at a wavelength of 1.3 mm, the EHT partnership used Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), the same technique with which the well-known image of the black hole in M87 was made. An alliance of eight telescopes around the globe collaborated to develop the virtual Earth-sized Event Horizon Telescope. The EHT cooperation includes more than 300 scientists from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America.
The EHT consortium includes 13 stakeholder institutes: the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the University of Arizona, the University of Chicago, the East Asian Observatory, Goethe University Frankfurt, Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (MPG/CNRS/IGN), Large Millimeter Telescope, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, MIT Haystack Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Radboud University and the Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & & Smithsonian.
TANAMI (Tracking Active Galactic Nuclei with Austral Milliarcsecond Interferometry) is a multiwavelength program to monitor relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei of the Southern Sky. This program has been keeping track of Centaurus A with VLBI at centimeter-wavelengths given that the mid 2000s. The TANAMI variety includes nine radio telescopes found on 4 continents observing at wavelengths of 4 cm and 1.3 cm.