Anchored in Shadows: Tying the Celestial Reference Frame Directly to Black Hole Event Horizons

Abstract: Both the radio International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF) and the optical Gaia Celestial Reference Frame (Gaia-CRF2) are derived from observations of jets produced by the Super Massive Black Holes (SMBH) powering active galactic nuclei and quasars. These jets are inherently subject to change and will appear different at different observing frequencies, leading to instabilities and systematic errors in the resulting Celestial Reference Frames (CRFs). Recently, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a mm-wave Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) array, has observed the 40 micro-as diameter shadow of the SMBH in M87 at 1.3 mm, showing that the emitting region is smaller than the black-hole shadow. Use of these SMBH "emission rings" (and the associated photon rings) as astrometric references will enable the resulting CRF to be anchored directly in SMBH shadows; the ultimate reference points for any CRF for the forseeable future. A properly equipped space VLBI mission devoted to the observation of SMBH event horizons could lead to a two-orders-of-magnitude improvement in the accuracy and stabilty of the ICRF in the relatively near future.