articleThe Astrophysical Journal LettersMay 1, 2022GOLD OA

First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. IV. Variability, Morphology, and Black Hole Mass

Woodwell Climate Research Center · Harvard University · +129 more institutions

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Abstract

Abstract In this paper we quantify the temporal variability and image morphology of the horizon-scale emission from Sgr A*, as observed by the EHT in 2017 April at a wavelength of 1.3 mm. We find that the Sgr A* data exhibit variability that exceeds what can be explained by the uncertainties in the data or by the effects of interstellar scattering. The magnitude of this variability can be a substantial fraction of the correlated flux density, reaching ∼100% on some baselines. Through an exploration of simple geometric source models, we demonstrate that ring-like morphologies provide better fits to the Sgr A* data than do other morphologies with comparable complexity. We develop two strategies for fitting…

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