Measuring the black hole mass in Centaurus A, the nearest active galaxy

Details Measuring the black hole mass in Centaurus A, the nearest active galaxy Measuring the black hole mass in Centaurus A, the nearest active galaxy

Jul 1999

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999hst..prop.8119s&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #8119

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Hst Proposal Id #8119 Galaxy Structure And Dynamics

Scientific paper

We will use STIS to measure the mass of the black hole at the center of NGC5128 {Cen A}, the nearest active galaxy. The presence of a super-massive black hole, comparable to that of M87, is suggested by the jet, the extent of the radio lobes, and the presence of strong nuclear radiation extending to hard X-rays and Gamma-rays. A 1" { 17pc} radius ionized accretion disk at the nucleus of Cen A was discovered in PaAlpha using HST NICMOS {Schreier et al. 1998}; we have now {1998 August} also seen the disk in Fe IILambda1.643Mu m. Recent near-IR ground based spectra {Blum, 1998 private communication} reveal broadened lines near the nucleus, consistent with a central mass eq 10^9 M_odot. These and other observations demonstrate that notwithstanding the high dust extinction at the center of NGC5128, a number of lines in the eq0.9-2.2Mu m range can be used to study the mass distribution. HST's spatial resolution is required to yield a good mass determination. S IIILambda 9532Angstrom is the shortest wavelength line which is seen to be present and is readily accessible to STIS. Observing with the G750L low-dispersion grating of STIS through the 0arcs1 wide slit, we will thus use the S III emission line as a gas tracer to measure the rotation curve of the disk, measure the mass distribution in the central few parsecs of the galaxy, and determine the mass of the black hole.

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