RESOLVING THE INNER JET STRUCTURE OF 1924-292 WITH THE EVENT HORIZON TELESCOPE

We present the first 1.3 mm (230 GHz) very long baseline interferometry model image of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) jet using closure phase techniques with a four-element array. The model image of the quasar 1924-292 was obtained with four telescopes at three observatories: the James Clerk Maxwe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astrophysical journal. Letters 2012-09, Vol.757 (1), p.1-5, Article L14
Main Authors: Lu, Ru-Sen, Fish, Vincent L, WEINTROUB, JONATHAN, DOELEMAN, SHEPERD S, Bower, Geoffrey C, Freund, Robert, Friberg, Per, Ho, Paul T P, HONMA, MAREKI, Inoue, Makoto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Active galactic nuclei
Arrays
Astronomy
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
BRIGHTNESS
Brightness temperature
Closures
Event horizon
GALAXIES
GHZ RANGE
INTERFEROMETRY
JET MODEL
QUASARS
RESOLUTION
TELESCOPES
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Summary:We present the first 1.3 mm (230 GHz) very long baseline interferometry model image of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) jet using closure phase techniques with a four-element array. The model image of the quasar 1924-292 was obtained with four telescopes at three observatories: the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the Arizona Radio Observatory's Submillimeter Telescope in Arizona, and two telescopes of the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy in California in 2009 April. With the greatly improved resolution compared with previous observations and robust closure phase measurement, the inner jet structure of 1924-292 was spatially resolved. The inner jet extends to the northwest along a position angle of -53[degrees] at a distance of 0.38 mas from the tentatively identified core, in agreement with the inner jet structure inferred from lower frequencies, and making a position angle difference of ~80[degrees] with respect to the centimeter jet. The size of the compact core is 0.15 pc with a brightness temperature of 1.2 x 10 super(11) K. Compared with those measured at lower frequencies, the low brightness temperature may argue in favor of the decelerating jet model or particle-cascade models. The successful measurement of closure phase paves the way for imaging and time resolving Sgr A* and nearby AGNs with the Event Horizon Telescope.
ISSN:0004-637X
2041-8205
1538-4357
2041-8213
DOI:10.1088/2041-8205/757/1/L14