Presentation
29 August 2022 Deep images of the Galactic Center with GRAVITY
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
The GRAVITY near-IR interferometer allows to observe the Galactic Center at very high angular resolution and to precisely track stellar orbits around Sagittarius A*. In the context of testing General Relativity close to the supermassive black hole, deep imaging is essential to search for faint stars on potentially short orbits. Here, we present G^R , a new imaging tool specifically designed for Galactic Center observations with GRAVITY. The algorithm is based on a Bayesian interpretation of the imaging problem, formulated in the framework of Information Field Theory and builds upon existing work from radio-interferometric imaging. Its application to GRAVITY observations from 2021 yields the deepest images of the Galactic Center on scales of a few milli-arcseconds, to date. Apart from detecting the known stars S38, S42, S60 and S63 within the central 100 mas around Sagittarius A*, the discovery of S300, a faint star moving at high angular velocity, demonstrates the capability of our met
Conference Presentation
© (2022) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Julia Stadler, GRAVITY+ Collaboration, Antonia Drescher, Felix Mang, and Frank Eisenhauer "Deep images of the Galactic Center with GRAVITY", Proc. SPIE 12183, Optical and Infrared Interferometry and Imaging VIII, 121831I (29 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2628251
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KEYWORDS
Stars

Algorithms

General relativity

High angular resolution imaging

Image analysis

Information theory

Interferometers

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