Evidence for a Massive Black Hole in the Active Galaxy NGC 4261 from HST Images and Spectra

Details Evidence for a Massive Black Hole in the Active Galaxy NGC 4261 from HST Images and Spectra Evidence for a Massive Black Hole in the Active Galaxy NGC 4261 from HST Images and Spectra

Dec 1995

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995aas...187.5602f&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, 187th AAS Meeting, #56.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 27, p.1367

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We present HST/WFPC2 V, R and I images and HST/FOS spectra of the active galaxy NGC 4261. An Hα map of the nuclear region is obtained from the R band image by using the V and I images for the continuum determination. The ionized gas is concentrated in a resolved circular region with a FWHM of 0.12'', or 17 pc, assuming a distance to NGC4261 of 30 Mpc. FOS spectra were taken with the 0.1'' aperture in the wavelength region between 4570 Angstroms and 6870 Angstroms, in a grid of thirteen aperture positions around and at the nuclear location. The [NII]lambda lambda 6548,6584+Hα emission complex is detected at all aperture positions. Fainter emission in Hβ , [OIII] lambda lambda 4459,5007, [OI] lambda lambda 6300,6364, [SII] lambda lambda 6717,6731, [NI]lambda lambda 5200,5202 and [NII]lambda 5756 is also detected. The central velocities of the [NII] lines as a function of distance from the center can be accounted for by assuming that the ionized gas is confined in a disk in Keplerian motion around a central mass (1.2 +/- 0.4) x 10(9) M_sun. By integrating the V luminosity density we find a mass to light ratio (M/L)_V ~ 5200 M_sun/L_sun within the inner 14.5 pc. The large mass to light ratio, and the fact that NGC4261 is a relatively strong radio galaxy, lead us to conclude that the majority of the central mass is concentrated in a (1.2 +/- 0.4) x 10(9) M_sun black hole. This work was supported by NASA Grants NAS 5-1630, GO-2607.01-87A, and GO-05432.01-93A.

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