The mass of the central black hole in the nearby Seyfert galaxy NGC 5273

Journal Article · Thu Nov 20 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/796/1/8· OSTI ID:22370213

Bentz, Misty C.; Horenstein, Daniel; Bazhaw, Craig; Manne-Nicholas, Emily R.; Ou-Yang, Benjamin J.; Anderson, Matthew; Jones, Jeremy; Norris, Ryan P.; Parks, J. Robert; Saylor, Dicy; Teems, Katherine G.; Turner, Clay ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Georgia State University, 25 Park Place, Suite 600, Atlanta, GA 30303 (United States)

We present the results of a reverberation-mapping program targeting NGC 5273, a nearby early-type galaxy with a broad-lined active galactic nucleus (AGN). Over the course of the monitoring program, NGC 5273 showed strong variability that allowed us to measure time delays in the responses of the broad optical recombination lines to changes in the continuum flux. A weighted average of these measurements results in a black hole mass determination of M {sub BH} = (4.7 ± 1.6) × 10{sup 6} M {sub ☉}. An estimate of the size of the black hole sphere of influence in NGC 5273 puts it just at the limit of the resolution achievable with current ground-based large aperture telescopes. NGC 5273 is therefore an important future target for a black hole mass determination from stellar dynamical modeling, especially because it is the only nearby early-type galaxy hosting an AGN with a reverberation-based mass, allowing the best comparison for the masses determined from these two techniques.

• OSTI ID: 22370213
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 796, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
APERTURES
BLACK HOLES
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
GALAXY NUCLEI
MASS
RECOMBINATION
RESOLUTION
SEYFERT GALAXIES
TIME DELAY