Related papers: The supermassive centre of our galaxy - et cetera
Was the Milky Way galaxy a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus (AGN) in the past? Can we find traces of remnant structures supporting this idea? What is the three-dimensional arrangement of matter around our central supermassive black…
An updated catalogue of 76 galaxies with direct supermassive black hole mass measurements (M_bh) plus, when available, their host bulge's central velocity dispersion (sigma_0) is provided. Fifty of these mass measurements are considered…
The dimensionless entropy, ${\cal S} \equiv S/k$, of the visible universe, taken as a sphere of radius 50 billion light years with the Earth at its "center", is discussed. An upper limit ($10^{112}$), and a lower limit ($10^{102}$), for…
A combination of ground-based and spacecraft observations has uncovered two black holes of 10 billion solar masses in the nearby Universe. The finding sheds light on how these cosmic monsters co-evolve with galaxies.
As part of the Megamaser Cosmology Project (MCP), we present VLBI maps of nuclear water masers toward five galaxies. The masers originate in sub-parsec circumnuclear disks. For three of the galaxies, we fit Keplerian rotation curves to…
Globular clusters could harbor massive central black holes (BHs), just as galaxies do. So far, no unambiguous detection of a massive BH has been reported for any globular cluster. However, the dense core-collapsed cluster M15 seems to be a…
One of the most interesting astronomical objects is the Galactic Center. We concentrate our discussion on a theoretical analysis of observational data of bright stars in the IR-band obtained with large telescopes. We also discuss the…
Most supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are accreting at very low levels and are difficult to distinguish from the galaxy centers where they reside. Our own Galaxy's SMBH provides a uniquely instructive exception, and we present a close-up…
We investigate where brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) sit on the fundamental plane of black hole (BH) activity, an established relation between the X-ray luminosity, the radio luminosity and the mass of a BH. Our sample mostly consists of…
We present Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph emission-line spectra of the central regions of the spiral galaxies NGC 1300 and NGC 2748. From the derived kinematics of the nuclear gas we have found evidence for central supermassive black…
Supermassive black holes are now realized to exist in the centers of most galaxies. The recent discoveries of luminous quasars at redshifts higher than 6 require that these black holes were assembled already when the Universe was less than…
Massive black holes are ubiquitous, occurring at the centres of all massive galaxies and possibly many low mass ones. They are no ornament which just happens to be there, but play a role vital to the growth and structure of the host galaxy.…
With 10 years of high-resolution imaging data now available on the stellar cluster in the Galactic Center, we analyze the dynamics of the stars at projected distances $\leq1.2''$ from the central black hole candidate Sagittarius A* (Sgr…
Deep infra-red observations and long-term monitoring programs have provided dynamical evidence for a supermassive black hole of mass 3.e6 solar masses associated with the radio source Sagitarrius A* at the center of our Galaxy. The…
We highlight the correlation between a galaxy's supermassive black hole mass and the Sersic-index of the host spheroid or bulge component. From our bulge-disk decompositions of 10 095 galaxies, drawn from the Millennium Galaxy Catalogue, we…
The centre of the Milky Way is the site of several high-energy processes that have strongly impacted the inner regions of our Galaxy. Activity from the super-massive black hole, Sgr A*, and/or stellar feedback from the inner molecular ring…
We analyze the properties of the star S2 orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the Galaxy. A high quality SINFONI H and K band spectrum obtained from coadding 23.5 hours of observation between 2004 and 2007 reveals that S2…
A sample of 229618 narrow emission-line galaxies is used to establish two new unambiguous type of evidence for supermassive black holes at the center of their nuclei: 1) the Seyfert 2 galaxies and LINERs follow the same characteristic power…
Two brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), namely Abell 1836-BCG and Abell 3565-BCG, were observed with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope. By modeling…
As the closest example of a galactic nucleus, the Galactic center presents an exquisite laboratory for learning about supermassive black holes (SMBH) and their environs. Detailed studies of stellar dynamics deep in the potential well of a…