MG11 |
Participant |
Paumard, Thibaut | |
Institution |
Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics - Giessenbachstrasse - Garching - - GERMANY | |
Session |
Talk |
Abstract |
APO3 |
Observing the flares of Sgr A* with the Very Large Telescope Interferometre |
Sgr A*, the super-massive compact object at the centre of the Galaxy, is known to exhibit so called flares in the near infrared and X-ray domains. These events are likely due to energetic events very close to the central object, on a scale of a few Schwarzschild radii (~10 microarcseconds). The Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) is in principle not only able to deliver aperture-synthesis imaging at a resolution of a few milliarcseconds, but also astrometry with an accuracy of order 10 microarcseconds. Given this adequacy, we have used relativistic ray tracing to study the possible apparent path of the centroid of flares given reasonable assumptions, and shown that the VLTI will be able to resolve proper motion of flares. |