The unique case of the AGN core of M87: a misaligned low power blazar?

 M87 hosts one of the closest jetted active galactic nucleus (AGN) to Earth. Thanks to its vicinity and to the large mass of is central black hole, M87 is the only source in which the jet can be directly imaged down to near-event horizon scales with radio very large baseline interferometry (VLBI). This property makes M87 a unique source to isolate and study jet launching, acceleration and collimation. In this paper we employ a multi-zone model designed as a parametrisation of general relativistic magneto-hydrodynamics (GRMHD); for the first time we reproduce the jet’s observed shape and multi-wavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) simultaneously. We find strong constraints on key physical parameters of the jet, such as the location of particle acceleration and the kinetic power. However, we under-predict the (unresolved) γ-ray flux of the source, implying that the high-energy emission does not originate in the magnetically-dominated inner jet regions. Our results have important implications both for comparisons of GRMHD simulations with observations, and for unified models of AGN classes.