Observability of the innermost stable circular orbit in a near-extremal Kerr black hole.

We consider the escape probability of a photon emitted from the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) around a rapidly rotating black hole. As an isotropically emitting light source on a circular orbit reduces its orbital radius, the escape probability of a photon emitted from it decreases monotonically. The escape probability evaluated at the ISCO decreases monotonically as the black hole spin increases. When the dimensionless Kerr parameter $a$ is the Thorne limit $a=0.998$, the escape probability at the ISCO is $58.8\%$. In the extremal case $a=1$, even if the orbital radius of the light source is arbitrarily close to the ISCO radius, which coincides with the horizon radius, the escape probability remains at $54.6\%$. We also show that such photons that have escaped from the vicinity of the horizon reach infinity with sufficient energy because Doppler blueshift due to the proper motion of a source can overcome the gravitational redshift. Our findings indicate that if the M87 galactic center is a rapidly rotating black hole, signs of the near-horizon physics will be detectable on the edge of the black hole shadow.