The M87 Black Hole Mass from JWST and Keck Stellar Kinematics Spanning 10 pc to 10 kpc
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Emily R. Liepold, Chung-Pei Ma, Refa M. Al-Amri, Jonelle L. Walsh · arXiv: 2611.05486v1 · Summary page
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A black hole measured through the stars around it
Researchers have combined JWST and Keck observations to map stellar motions around M87’s central black hole, from approximately 10 pc to approximately 10 kpc. Models that follow stellar orbits through a triaxial galaxy recover a black hole mass consistent with the team’s earlier Keck-only result, while substantially reducing the statistical uncertainty. The inferred mass-to-distance ratio also has a credible interval overlapping that from the Event Horizon Telescope, providing an independent constraint for interpreting observations much closer to the black hole.
Getting there required removing quasiperiodic artifacts from the innermost JWST spectra. The team developed software that predicts how these instrumental patterns change with wavelength and subtracts them before combining exposures. Once cleaned, the spectra show a strong central rise in stellar velocity dispersion. The remaining uncertainty is now dominated by the distance to M87 rather than statistical measurement noise—a reminder that sharper observations can expose a different limiting factor.
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