Imaging a ring-like structure and the extended jet of M87 at 86 GHz

¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany
² Jansky Fellow of National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 1011 Lopezville Rd, Socorro, NM 87801, USA
³ Key Laboratory of Radio Astronomy and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, A20 Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, PR China
⁴ Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, PR China
⁵ Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands
⁶ Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
⁷ Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539 Munich, Germany
⁸ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC, Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, 18008 Granada, Spain
⁹ Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany

^★ Corresponding author; jongkim@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de

Received: 28 August 2024
Accepted: 24 February 2025

Abstract

Context. The galaxy M87 is one of the prime targets for high resolution radio imaging to investigate the ring-like “shadow” of its supermassive black hole, the innermost regions of accretion flow, and the formation of the relativistic jet. However, it remains challenging to observe them jointly due to the sparsity of the UV coverage and limited array sensitivity. In 2018, global mm-VLBI array (GMVA)+ALMA observations at 86 GHz enabled the simultaneous reconstruction of a ring structure and the extended jet emission. In order to analyze the ring and jet of M87, conventional CLEAN algorithms were mainly employed alongside the regularized maximum likelihood method SMILI in previous work.

Aims. To test the robustness of the reconstructed structures of M87 GMVA+ALMA observations at 86 GHz, we estimate the ring diameter, width, and the extended jet emission with the possible central spine by two different novel imaging algorithms: resolve and DoG-HiT.

Methods. We performed Bayesian self-calibration and imaging with uncertainty estimation using resolve. In addition, we reconstructed the image with DoG-HiT, using only interferometric closure quantities.

Results. Overall, reconstructions are consistent with the CLEAN and SMILI images. The ring structure of M87 is resolved at a higher resolution and the posterior distribution of M87 ring features is explored. The resolve images show that the ring diameter is 60.9 ± 2.2 μas and its width is 16.0 ± 0.9 μas. The ring diameter and the ring width measured from the DoG-HiT image are 61.0 μas and 20.6 μas, respectively. The ring diameter is therefore in agreement with the estimation (64₋₈⁺⁴μas) by SMILI image reconstructions and visibility domain model fitting. Two bright spots in the ring are reconstructed by four independent imaging methods. Therefore, the substructure in the ring most likely results from the data. A consistent limb-brightened jet structure is reconstructed by resolve and DoG-HiT, albeit with a less pronounced central spine.

Conclusions. Modern data-driven imaging methods confirm the ring and jet structure in M87, and complement traditional VLBI methods with novel perspectives on evaluating the significance of the recovered features. They confirm the result of the previous report.