{"id":55,"date":"2019-01-06T18:01:51","date_gmt":"2019-01-06T18:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oliverpfuhl.com\/?page_id=55"},"modified":"2019-01-13T14:33:44","modified_gmt":"2019-01-13T14:33:44","slug":"science","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/oliverpfuhl.com\/?page_id=55","title":{"rendered":"Science"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Highlights 2018<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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GRAVITY collaboration, et al. 2018b, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 618, L10 <\/a><\/em><\/strong>
We detected orbital motion at the innermost stable orbit of the supermassive black hole<\/strong> SgrA*. This discovery not only provides compelling evidence for a supermassive black hole but also has the potential to probe the spin in the near future.

Link to ESO press release<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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GRAVITY collaboration: Karl, Pfuhl et al. 2018, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 620, 116<\/a><\/em><\/strong>
High mass star formation<\/strong>. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the formation of massive stars in the face of radiation pressure.  My master student and I observed in a recent study the Orion Nebulae, a proto-typical massive star formation region. We used interferometry to test formation models through the detection of gravitationally bound companion stars. Our results pose a challenge to current formation models based on the large number of detected low mass companions. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Sturm, Dexter, Pfuhl et al. 2018, Nature, 563, 657<\/a><\/em><\/strong> <\/strong><\/em>:<\/strong>
We used spectro-astrometry with GRAVITY on the massive quasar 3C273<\/strong>, with the goal of measuring the broad-line region (BLR). <\/strong>This region, so far only accessible through indirect techniques, can be probed by an astrometric shift across the emission line. In this proto-typical system we were able to answer a long standing question on the orging of the BLR emission. We could show that the BLR is dominated by Keplerian rotation <\/strong>of high velocity clouds. Further, we obtained the black hole mass and BLR size with unprecedented accuracy.

Link to MPE press release<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a>GRAVITY collaboration, et al. 2018a, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 615, L15<\/a><\/em><\/strong>
We measured the general relativistic redshift<\/strong> of the star S2 as it passed the supermassive black hole SgrA* at a distance of only 17 light hours (GRAVITY collaboration, et al. 2018a). I played a key role especially in the astrometric analysis and orbit reconstruction<\/strong>. The immediate next objective of this project is the detection of Schwarzschild precession and higher order post-Newtonian perturbations of the S2 orbit.

Link to ESO press release<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Older science highlights will be added soon….
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Highlights 2018 GRAVITY collaboration, et al. 2018b, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 618, L10 We detected orbital motion at the innermost stable orbit of the supermassive black hole SgrA*. This discovery not only provides compelling evidence for a supermassive black hole but also has the potential to probe the spin in the near future. Link to ESO […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-55","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oliverpfuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oliverpfuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oliverpfuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oliverpfuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oliverpfuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/oliverpfuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217,"href":"https:\/\/oliverpfuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55\/revisions\/217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oliverpfuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}