Observing the Black Hole Shadow of M87 and the Greenland Telescope Project: GR Test in the Strong Gravity Regime

摘要

Direct imaging of the "shadow" cast by the black hole event horizon and the test of physics in strong gravity is one of the important goals in modern astronomy. The ongoing Greenland Telescope project in Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) is devoting itself to this exciting area. ASIAA has officially acquired the 12m ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) Vertex Prototype Telescope in 2011. This telescope, now renamed as the "Greenland Telescope (GLT)", is going to be moved to the Summit Station in Greenland after upgrades. The first light of GLT at the Summit Station is expected to be available in 2018/2019. Together with SMA (Submillimeter Array) in Hawaii and ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) in Chile, the angular resolution at sub-mm will reach~20μarcsec, providing an unique opportunity to observe the shadow of the supermassive black hole at the center of M87, and the accretion/jet structure near the event horizon. The GLT project is a collaborative project between ASIAA, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, MIT Haystack Observatory, and National Radio Astronomy Observatory.