Scattered Emission from the Active Nucleus Buried in NGC 4258

Details Scattered Emission from the Active Nucleus Buried in NGC 4258 Scattered Emission from the Active Nucleus Buried in NGC 4258

Jul 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996hst..prop.6888s&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #6888

Computer Science

Hst Proposal Id #6888 Galaxies &Amp, Clusters

Scientific paper

The recent detection of H_2O masers in an edge-on diskorbiting a massive black hole in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC4258 (Miyoshi et al. 1995) represents a fundamental stepforward in our understanding of the structure of activegalactic nuclei. Ground-based imaging- and spectro-polarimetry obtained by us during the past year have extendedthis result with the discovery of a featureless nuclearcontinuum and 1000 km s^-1-wide emission lines, polarizedpresumably by scattering in a toroidal geometry. Thepolarization position angle is identical to the elongation ofthe maser disk on the sky, establishing a direct link betweenthe geometry of an obscuring torus in an active galaxy andmaterial orbiting a compact object of high mass. We proposeto obtain small-aperture UV spectroscopy andspectropolarimetry of the nucleus of NGC 4258 to isolate thisscattered AGN spectrum from the surrounding starlight. Thiswill be used to measure the nonthermal spectral shape andluminosity, and search for scattered UV emission lines. Inaddition, ultraviolet images obtained with WFPC2 will becompared with existing Cycle 4 optical continuum and emission-line images to search for the ionizing cones which areexpected to be produced by radiation escaping along the axisof the torus. Unfortunately, high-resolution imagingpolarimetry must await the installation of the Advanced Camerain 1999.

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