Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userHST STIS spectroscopy of the triple nucleus of M31: two nested disks in Keplerian rotation around a Supermassive Black Hole
152
0
0.0
(
0
)
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
We present HST spectroscopy of the nucleus of M31 obtained with STIS. Spectra taken around the CaT lines at 8500 see only the red giants in the double bright- ness peaks P1 and P2. In contrast, spectra taken at 3600-5100 A are sensitive to the tiny blue nucleus embedded in P2, the lower surface brightness red nucleus. P2 has a K-type spectrum, but the embedded blue nucleus has an A-type spectrum with strong Balmer absorption lines. Given the small likelihood for stellar collisions, a 200 Myr old starburst appears to be the most plausible origin of the blue nucleus. In stellar population, size, and velocity dispersion, the blue nucleus is so different from P1 and P2 that we call it P3. The line-of-sight velocity distributions of the red stars in P1+P2 strengthen the support for Tremaine s eccentric disk model. The kinematics of P3 is consistent with a circular stellar disk in Keplerian rotation around a super-massive black hole with M_bh = 1.4 x 10^8 M_sun. The P3 and the P1+P2 disks rotate in the same sense and are almost coplanar. The observed velocity dispersion of P3 is due to blurred rotation and has a maximum value of sigma = 1183+-201 km/s. The observed peak rotation velocity of P3 is V = 618+-81 km/s at radius 0.05 = 0.19 pc corresponding to a circular rotation velocity at this radius of ~1700 km/s. Any dark star cluster alternative to a black hole must have a half-mass radius <= 0.03 = 0.11 pc. We show that this excludes clusters of brown dwarfs or dead stars on astrophysical grounds.
rate research
Read More
As part of the mm-Wave Interferometric Survey of Dark Object Masses (WISDOM), we present a measurement of the mass of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the nearby early-type galaxy NGC 0383 (radio source 3C 031). This measurement is based on Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-milimeter Array (ALMA) cycle 4 and 5 observations of the 12CO(2-1) emission line with a spatial resolution of 58x32pc2 (0.18x0.1). This resolution, combined with a channel width of 10 km/s, allows us to well resolve the radius of the black hole sphere of influence (measured as R_SOI = 316pc = 0.98), where we detect a clear Keplerian increase of the rotation velocities. NGC 0383 has a kinematically-relaxed, smooth nuclear molecular gas disc with weak ring/spiral features. We forward-model the ALMA data cube with the Kinematic Molecular Simulation (KinMS) tool and a Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo method to measure a SMBH mass of (4.2+/-0.7)x10^9 Msun, a F160W-band stellar mass-to-light ratio that varies from 2.8+/-0.6 Msun/Lsun in the centre to 2.4+/-0.3 Msun/Lsun at the outer edge of the disc and a molecular gas velocity dispersion of 8.3+/-2.1 km/s (all 3-sigma uncertainties). We also detect unresolved continuum emission across the full bandwidth, consistent with synchrotron emission from an active galactic nucleus. This work demonstrates that low-J CO emission can resolve gas very close to the SMBH (~140,000 Schwarzschild radii) and hence that the molecular gas method is highly complimentary to megamaser observations as it can probe the same emitting material.
Thanks to its unprecedented spatial resolution, the Hubble Space Telescope has ended a 20-year long stalemate by detecting the dynamical signature of nuclear supermassive black holes (SBHs) in a sizeable number of nearby galaxies. These detections have revealed the existence of a symbiotic relationship between SBHs and their hosts, changing the way we view SBH and galaxy formation. In this contribution I review which are the most pressing outstanding issues in SBH research, and what are the technological requirements needed to address them.
We examine the possibility of observing gravitational lensing in the weak deflection regime by the supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy M31. This black hole is significantly more massive than the black hole in the center of our Galaxy qualifying itself as a more effective lens. However, it is also more distant and the candidate stellar sources appear consequently fainter. As potential sources we separately consider stars belonging to the bulge, to the disk, to the triple nucleus formed by P1+P2 and by the recently discovered inner cluster P3. We calculate the number of simultaneously lensed stars at a given time as a function of the threshold magnitude required for the secondary image. For observations in the K-band we find 1.4 expected stars having secondary images brighter than K=24 and 182 brighter than K=30. For observations in the V-band we expect 1.3 secondary images brighter than V=27 and 271 brighter than V=33. The bulge stars have the highest chance to be lensed by the supermassive black hole, whereas the disk and the composite nucleus stars contribute by 10% each. The typical angular separation of the secondary images from the black hole range from 1 mas to 0.1. For each population we also show the distribution of the lensed sources as a function of their distance and absolute magnitude, the expected angular positions and velocities of the generated secondary images, the rate and the typical duration of the lensing events.
The growth of supermassive black holes (SBHs) appears to be closely linked with the formation of spheroids. There is a pressing need to acquire better statistics on SBH masses, since the existing samples are preferentially weighted toward early-type galaxies with very massive SBHs. With this motivation we started a project aimed at measuring upper limits on the mass of the SBHs in the center of all the nearby galaxies (D<100 Mpc) for which STIS/G750M spectra are available in the HST archive. These upper limits will be derived by modeling the central emission-line widths observed in the Halpha region over an aperture of ~0.1. Here we present our results for a subsample of 20 S0-Sb galaxies within 20 Mpc.
We present preliminary results on the low-redshift Lyman alpha forest as based on STIS spectra of 3C 273. A total of 121 intergalactic Lyman alpha-absorbing systems were detected, of which 60 are above the 3.5 sigma completness limit, log N(HI)~12.3. The median Doppler parameter, b=27 km/s, is similar to that seen at high redshift. However the distribution of HI column densities (dN/dN(HI) propto N(HI)^-beta) has a steeper slope, beta = 2.02 +- 0.21, than is seen at high redshift. Overall, the observed N(HI)-b distribution is consistent with that derived from a Lambda CDM hydrodynamic simulation.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
