Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21533607d&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #336.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.440
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
M84 is a giant elliptical galaxy located in the Virgo cluster. Prior imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) revealed a small, highly inclined, nuclear ionized gas disk, the kinematics of which indicate the presence of a 1.5 billion solar mass black hole. Two prominent radio jets emerge perpendicular to the nuclear ionized gas disk terminating in large radio lobes that extend beyond the visible galaxy. Plausible kinematic models are used to constrain the size of the broad line region (BLR) in M84 by modeling the shape of the broad Hα emission line profile. The analysis indicates that the emitting volume is large with an outer radius between 6 and 10 pc, depending on whether the kinematic model is represented by a spherically symmetric free-fall or a Keplerian disk. The inferred size makes the BLR in M84 the largest yet to be measured. The BLR contains less than 2754 M&sun; of dense, ≥ 103 cm-3, ionized gas, leading to a very low filling factor of ≤ 3 x 10-2. The fact that the BLR in M84 is so large may explain why the AGN is unable to sustain the ionization seen there. Thus, the AGN in M84 is not simply a scaled down quasar. The gas density is pivotal in deciding between an accretion disk and a spherically symmetric infall as the origin for the broad Hα emission line seen in M84.
Devereux Nicholas A.
Eracleous Michael
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