Improved Evidence for a 3 x10 6 Msun Black Hole in M32: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Spectroscopy with FWHM = 0 -8pt. 47 Resolution

Details Improved Evidence for a 3 x10 6 Msun Black Hole in M32: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Spectroscopy with FWHM = 0 -8pt. 47 Resolution Improved Evidence for a 3 x10 6 Msun Black Hole in M32: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Spectroscopy with FWHM = 0 -8pt. 47 Resolution

Jun 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996apj...464l.123b&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal Letters v.464, p.L123

Physics

48

Black Hole Physics, Galaxies: Individual Messier Number: M32, Galaxies: Kinematics And Dynamics, Galaxies: Nuclei

Scientific paper

We present improved spectroscopy of M32 with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and Subarcsecond Imaging Spectrograph. Tip-tilt guiding provides a resolution of FWHM = 0."47 or sigma * = 0."20 ( sigma * = Gaussian dispersion radius of the point-spread function). The observed central velocity dispersion, sigma ~= 92 +/- 5 km s-1, and the maximum rotation velocity, Vmax = 55 +/- 3 km s-1, are larger than at lower resolution. In addition, the measured line-of-sight velocity distributions indicate the possible presence of broad wings at radii r <~ 0."2, with significant numbers of stars at Delta V ~= 200 km s-1 from the mean velocity. Two-integral dynamical models fit these data provided that M32 contains a central dark object, probably a black hole, of mass M• ~= (3.0 +/- 0.5) x 106 Msolar. This confirms detections based on lower resolution spectra by Tonry, Dressler, Richstone, van der Marel, Dehnen, and collaborators. The available spatial resolution has now improved by a factor of 3 since Tonry's discovery observations; each improvement in resolution has strengthened the case for a black hole in M32.

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