Special Astrophysics Colloquium

Event Horizon Telescope Imaging of Sagittarius A*

Geoffrey Bower

Event Horizon Telescope

I will present the first image of the Galactic Center black hole, Sgr A*, obtained with the Event Horizon Telescope. The image has a ring-like morphology consistent with predictions of general relativity and the Kerr metric. Comparison with an unprecedented library of GRMHD simulations places strong constraints on the accretion and outflow properties. The result confirms that the gravitational lensing feature observed first in M87 is a universal property of black holes, establishes the consistency of general relativity over three orders of magnitude in mass, and opens the door for future tests of gravitational physics, accretion, and jet formation.