Abstract
- [*] HST observations of NGC 6240
- Gerssen J., van der Marel R.P., Axon D., Mihos C.,
Hernquist L., Barnes J.
- in `The central kiloparsec of starbursts and AGN',
Knapen J.H., Beckman J.E., Shlosman I., Mahoney T.J., eds.,
ASP Conference Series, in press, 2001
- © 2001. Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
All Rights Reserved.
-
WFPC2 images and STIS spectroscopic observations are presented of the
double nucleus in the merger system NGC 6240. We find that: (a) the
kinematics of the ionized gas is similar to that of the molecular gas,
despite a different morphology; (b) the gaseous and stellar kinematics
are quite different, suggesting an early merger stage; (c) neither the
gaseous nor the stellar kinematics show an obvious sign of the
supermassive black hole believed to be responsible for the X-ray
emission of NGC 6240; and (d) the steep off-nuclear velocity gradient
is not due to a 10^11 solar mass black hole, in contrast to earlier
suggestions.
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Last modified June 22, 2001.
Roeland van der Marel,
marel@stsci.edu.
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