High Spatial Resolution Kinematics of the Disk around the Active Nucleus of NGC 4261

Details High Spatial Resolution Kinematics of the Disk around the Active Nucleus of NGC 4261 High Spatial Resolution Kinematics of the Disk around the Active Nucleus of NGC 4261

Jul 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994hst..prop.5432f&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #5432

Computer Science

Hst Proposal Id #5432 Galaxies &Amp, Clusters Nuclei/Cores

Scientific paper

HST F555W images of NGC 4261 (E3), the seventh brightest early type galaxy in Virgo, show a small (1".7 x 0".74), dusty disk with sharp edges and a point-like nucleus. The disk's minor axis is aligned with the axis of the large scale bi-directional radio jet which originates in the nucleus. The face-on optical depth of the dust is 0.3. The disk contains HI and CO, and the nucleus is a LINER with unusually strong and broad (FWZI ~ 4500 km/s) emission lines of [NII] and [SII]. We conclude that we are looking directly at the structure, i.e. the nuclear disk, which fuels the engine and determines the direction of the radio jet. WHT spectra show subtle but unmistakeable evidence for rotation of the narrow component of [NII] emission. Our models of the emission suggest, but by no means prove, that there is a ~ 4 x 10**7 M black hole in the nucleus. Our models of the light and mass distribution show that the definitive signature of a massive black hole will be a transition from the solid body rotation observed from the ground to a rising Keplerian rotation curve for r < 0".3. We propose to use the FOS 0".09 aperture with G570H to map the rotation curve in the disk in the crucial region r < 0".3 which is unobservable from the ground. The observations of this nearly unique small nuclear disk provide an opportunity to make an unambiguous measurement of the mass of an active nucleus.

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