9547(  1) - 12/06/01 12:51  - [  1]

    PROPOSAL FOR HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS   ST ScI Use Only
                                                       ID:      9547
                                                       Version: 1
                                                       Check-in Date: 06-Dec-2001
                                                                      11:51:00

1.Proposal Title:
Using archival STIS kinematics to probe AGN fueling in the central 100 parsecs
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Proposal For  3. Cycle
AR               11
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Investigators
                                                                                     Contact?
    PI: Paul Martini                      Carnegie Observatories
   CoI: Dr. John Mulchaey                 Carnegie Observatories                        N
   CoI: Prof. Richard Pogge               Ohio State University                         N
   CoI: Dr. Michael Regan                 Space Telescope Science Institute             N

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Abstract

Low-luminosity AGN far outnumber the more luminous quasars and may therefore be the
dominant mechanism for cosmic black hole growth, yet the mechanisms that remove
angular momentum from their fuel and cause it to accrete onto their central,
supermassive black holes are essentially unknown. Demographic arguments suggest that
the typical lifetime of AGN activity may be approximately 10^7 years and therefore
spatially resolving the processes that give rise to AGN activity will require
spatial resolution on scales where the dynamical timescale is less than this, or
tens of parsecs. We propose to extract archival STIS spectra of nearby active and
non-active galaxies to quantify their kinematic properties and form the basis for a
future study of the circumnuclear kinematics of our previous HST imaging targets. In
conjunction with our ground-based spectroscopy, we will investigate the kinematic
properties of galaxies over the physical scales at which angular momentum must be
removed from future AGN fuel.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                9547(  1) - 12/06/01 12:51  - [  2]

            Summary Form for Proposal  9547

  Item                         Used in this proposal
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Proposal Category            AR
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------