Related papers: Active Galactic Nuclei and Quasars: Why Still a Pu…

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) have been a challenging field of research for the past six decades. Nevertheless, many questions still remain unanswered today, regardless of the tremendous theoretical and technological advances. In this brief…

Astronomers knew early in the twentieth century that some galaxies have emission-line nuclei. However, even the systematic study by Seyfert (1943) was not enough to launch active galactic nuclei (AGN) as a major topic of astronomy. The…

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are multiwavelength emitters. To have any hope of understanding them, or even to determine their energy output, we must observe them with many telescopes. I will review what we have learned from broad-band…

I recall how the discovery of quasars occurred more than forty years ago, and the strong debates marking out their story. It led to the discovery of Massive Black Holes, which are now known to be present in almost all galaxies, and it…

I present an overview of observational studies of quasars of all types, with particular emphasis on X-ray observational studies. The presentation is based on the most popularly accepted unified picture of quasars - collectively referred to…

In this paper we give a brief review of the astrophysics of active galactic nuclei (AGN). After a general introduction motivating the study of AGNs, we discuss our present understanding of the inner workings of the central engines, most…

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are ideal sources for multi-wavelength studies as their emission can cover almost 20 orders of magnitude in frequency from the radio to the gamma-ray band. After reviewing their basic properties, I will assess…

The remarkable progress made in infrared (IR) astronomical instruments over the last 10-15 years has radically changed our vision of the extragalactic IR sky, and overall understanding of galaxy evolution. In particular, this has been the…

Over the last five decades, AGN studies have produced a number of spectacular examples of synergies and multifaceted approaches in astrophysics. The field of AGN research now spans the entire spectral range and covers more than twelve…

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are highly energetic astrophysical sources powered by accretion onto supermassive black holes in galaxies, which present unique observational signatures covering the full electromagnetic spectrum (and more) over…

There are several key open questions as to the nature and origin of AGN including: 1) what initiates the active phase, 2) the duration of the active phase, and 3) the effect of the AGN on the host galaxy. Critical new insights to these can…

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are energetic astrophysical sources powered by accretion onto supermassive black holes in galaxies, and present unique observational signatures that cover the full electromagnetic spectrum over more than twenty…

The last decade saw long-awaited improvements in our understanding of active galactic nuclei (AGN) spectral properties. This contribution reviews some important observational results obtained from optical and UV data as well as constraints…

This article reviews and discusses 1) the discovery and early work on the evolution of quasars and AGNs, 2) the different techniques used to find quasars and their suitability for evolutionary studies, 3) the current status of our knowledge…

Analytical and numerical galaxy-formation models indicate that active galactic nuclei (AGNs) likely play a prominent role in the formation and evolution of galaxies. However, quantifying this effect requires knowledge of how the nuclear…

Outflows from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) seem to be common and are thought to be important from a variety of perspectives: as an agent of chemical enhancement of the interstellar and intergalactic media, as an agent of angular momentum…

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are traditionally divided empirically into two main classes: "radio-loud" and "radio-quiet" sources. These labels, which are more than fifty years old, are obsolete, misleading, and wrong. I argue that AGN…

Most Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are `obscured', i.e. the nucleus is hiding behind a screen of absorbing material. The advantage of having the nucleus obscured is to make easier the observations of those emission components which originate…

We discuss how several of the questions that remain unclear on the physics of Active Galactic Nuclei may find elements of answers when using in the coming years the extraordinary set of instruments that will be flying simultaneously to…

We present the general properties of the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) and discuss the origin and structure of jets that are associated to a fraction of these objects. We then we address the problems of particle acceleration at highly…