Adaptive Optics: Observations and Prospects for Studies of Active Galactic Nuclei

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 (9)

• 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
• Galactic Centre stellar winds and Sgr A* accretion
• The central parsecs of Centaurus A: High Excitation Gas, a Molecular Disk, and the Mass of the Black Hole
• 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
• The Carnegie Observatories Astrophysics Series