Black holes in kinematically decoupled cores: a study of IC 1459

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Hst Proposal Id #6537 Galaxies &Amp, Clusters

Scientific paper

IC 1459 is a luminous active E3 elliptical galaxy which has been studied extensively using ground-based spectroscopy and WFPC2 broad-band imaging, because of its remarkable kinematic properties. The stars in the central 10 arcsec counter-rotate with respect to the gas, and with respect to the stars at larger radii. This and other evidence suggest that a strong accretion event has occurred in the history of this galaxy. Models for the ground-based stellar kinematics and HST broad-band photometry indicate the possible presence of a 3 * 10^9 solar mass black hole {BH}. WFPC2 broad-band images show a blue nuclear point source, probably due to non-thermal continuum. Ground-based imaging and spectroscopy of the ionized gas indicates that it resides in a disk at an inclination of approximately 60 degrees. These properties are very similar to those of M87, for which HST has unambiguously demonstrated the presence of a BH, but which presumably had a very different formation history. Establishing the presence of a BH in IC 1459 is important for understanding the relevance of mergers and interactions for the growth of nuclear BHs. We will obtain a WFPC2 H_alpha+[NII] narrow-band image {to be constructed from one on-band and one off-band image} to study the nuclear morphology of the gas disk of IC 1459, and FOS spectra to determine the rotation of the gas close to the nucleus. This will allow the identification of any BH more massive than 10^8 solar masses.

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