Speaker
Sam Gralla
(University of Arizona)
Description
The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration has released 1.3mm interferometric observations of the core of the galaxy M87. I will review the observations and the general physical principles involved in their interpretation. After describing the basic heuristics needed to understand the effect of a black hole on the observational appearance of nearby emission, I will emphasize that gravitational lensing is largely irrelevant at EHT resolution. Instead, the observational appearance of a given source is determined entirely by the emission profile and redshift effects. I will comment on the specific interpretation of the public 2017 observations and discuss what we can expect going forward.
Primary author
Sam Gralla
(University of Arizona)
