Adaptive Optics: Observations and Prospects for Studies of Active Galactic Nuclei
arXiv:0806.0468 · doi:10.1016/j.newar.2008.06.002
Abstract
These lectures take a look at how observations with adaptive optics (AO) are beginning to influence our understanding of active galactic nuclei (AGN). By focussing on a few specific topics, the aim is to highlight the different ways in which enhanced spatial resolution from AO can aid the scientific analysis of AGN data. After presenting some background about how AO works, I will describe a few recent observations made with AO of QSO host galaxies, the Galactic Center, and nearby AGN, and show how they have contributed to our knowledge of these enigmatic objects.
Accepted for NewAR in proceedings of "Active Galactic Nuclei at the highest angular resolution: theory and observations", 2007 summer school, Torun, Poland. A version with high resolution colour figures is available from http://www.mpe.mpg.de/~davies/Davies_AGN_AO.pdf
References in corpus (18)
- The Two Young Star Disks in the Central Parsec of the Galaxy: Properties, Dynamics and Formation
- Radio-Loudness of Active Galactic Nuclei: Observational Facts and Theoretical Implications
- A Close Look at Star Formation around Active Galactic Nuclei
- Resolving the complex structure of the dust torus in the active nucleus of the Circinus galaxy
- Gemini and Hubble Space Telescope Evidence for an Intermediate Mass Black Hole in omega Centauri
- The Star-Forming Torus and Stellar Dynamical Black Hole Mass in the Seyfert 1 Nucleus of NGC3227
- Galactic Centre stellar winds and Sgr A* accretion
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- Variable accretion and emission from the stellar winds in the Galactic centre
- Resolving the innermost parsec of Centaurus A at mid-infrared wavelengths
- Circumnuclear Gas in Seyfert 1 Galaxies: Morphology, Kinematics, and Direct Measurement of Black Hole Masses
- Host dynamics and origin of Palomar-Green QSOs
- SINFONI adaptive optics integral field spectroscopy of the Circinus Galaxy
- Near Infrared Adaptive Optics Imaging of QSO Host Galaxies
- The Carnegie Observatories Astrophysics Series
- Star Formation in QSO Host Galaxies
- Galaxy morphology and evolution from SWAN Adaptive Optics imaging