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D.J Axon (University of Hertfordshire)
The nuclear regions of most galaxies contain significant amounts of dust . This is a significant obstacle to dynamical attempts to establish if a Black Hole is present via optical spectroscopy. The famous radio-elliptical Centaurus A, dominated by its spectacualr obscuring dust lane is a classic illustration. We present near-IR spectroscopy of both the ionized and molecular gas in the central 100pc of the galaxy, obtained with ISAAC on the VLT. Our results allow for the first time a determination of the velocity field of the 20pc nuclear emission line disk discoverd by Schreier et al (1998). The nuclear rotation curves are well described by a thin disk in keplarian rotation and require the presence of a Black Hole with a mass ~108 Msun.