A VLBA movie of the jet launch region in M87

Abstract

M87 has one of the largest angular size black holes known. It also has a bright jet that is well resolved across the jet near the core using high frequency VLBI. As such it is the best object to observe to study the launch region of jets where the physical sizes of structures of interest scale with the gravitational radius. Modern numerical simulations suggest that the jet formation extends over 100-1000 Rs. M87 has been observed with a resolution of about 60 Rs at 43 GHz with the VLBA every 3 weeks through 2007, and every 5 days between January and April 2008. A preliminary movie, made from the first 11 observations in 2007, shows fast (∼2c) and complex motions in an edge brightened structure with a wide opening angle at the base.