Kinematic evidence for a central mass concentration in the Sombrero galaxy (NGC 4594)

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Angular Velocity, Galactic Mass, Galactic Nuclei, Galactic Rotation, Stellar Motions, Astronomical Spectroscopy, Black Holes (Astronomy), Star Clusters, Velocity Distribution

Scientific paper

The authors present new medium-resolution stellar absorption line kinematic data for the major axis of the Sombrero galaxy (NGC 4594). These data reveal a sharp mean increase of about 59 km s-1 in the velocity dispersion within 4.2" of the centre. The velocity gradient across the nucleus within this same distance is measured at 38 km s-1arcsec-1, insufficient to produce the observed peak in velocity dispersion by rotational broadening alone. It is concluded that there is strong evidence that NGC 4594 contains a super-massive object, possibly a black hole or massive star cluster. In the simplest case of spherical symmetry and isotropic stellar velocities, the authors estimate a total mass M ≅ 109M_sun; inside a region of radius r = 3.5arcsec (= 309 pc, D = 18.2 Mpc) of the centre of the galaxy.

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