VERITAS - Radio Imaging of the Very-High-Energy {gamma}-Ray Emission Region in the Central Engine of a Radio G

Radio Imaging of the Very-High-Energy {gamma}-Ray Emission Region in the Central Engine of a Radio G

Written by The VERITAS Collaboration, the VLBA 43 GHz M 87 Monitoring Team, the H.E.S.S. Collaboration, and the
Friday, 24 July 2009
Science Magazine, Volume 325, pp 444-448 (2009) Full Text arXiv/0908.0511 The accretion of matter onto a massive black hole is believedto feed the relativistic plasma jets found in many active galacticnuclei (AGN). Although some AGN accelerate particles to energiesexceeding 10¹² electron volts and are bright sources of very-high-energy(VHE) ${gamma}$ -ray emission, it is not yet known where the VHE emissionoriginates. Here we report on radio and VHE observations ofthe radio galaxy Messier 87, revealing a period of extremelystrong VHE ${gamma}$ -ray flares accompanied by a strong increase of theradio flux from its nucleus. These results imply that chargedparticles are accelerated to very high energies in the immediatevicinity of the black hole.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 06 October 2009 )