AAS 203rd Meeting, January 2004
Session 116 Elliptical and Spiral Galaxies
Poster, Thursday, January 8, 2004, 9:20am-4:00pm, Grand Hall

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[116.17] The Massive Black Hole in the Dwarf Galaxy NGC 4486B

A. Bender (U. of Illinois / NOAO REU Program), R.F. Green (KPNO), K. Gebhardt (U. of Texas), G. A. Bower (STScI), J. Kormendy (U. of Texas), T. Lauer (NOAO), D.O. Richstone (U. of Michigan), STIS IDT Galaxy Nuclei Team, Nuker Team

We report results from the application of a three-integral galactic dynamical model to NGC 4486B. This dwarf E1 companion to M87 has long been known to be an outlier in the Fundamental Plane. Kormendy and Magorrian et al. found a substantial central black hole mass, making it an outlier in the MBH to Lbulge relationship as well. From the modeling we are able to determine the extent to which NGC 4486B follows the MBH - sigma relation more closely than the other bulge galaxy relationships. The other unique feature NGC 4486B exhibits is a double nucleus structure, the second of only two observed. We combine the high resolution of STIS spectra with ground based data to form a more complete description of the line-of-sight velocity distributions (LOSVDs) in the nuclear region of NGC 4486B. Through the increased resolution of the dynamics and the three-integral model, we place an improved constraint on the mass-to-light ratio and black hole mass.

Bender’s research was supported by the NOAO/KPNO Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program which is funded by the National Science Foundation through Scientific Program Order No. 3 (AST-0243875) of the Cooperative Agreement No. AST-0132798 between the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and the NSF. RG and GB were supported by NASA for the STIS Instrument Definition Team. This work is a collaboration with the STIS Instrument Definition Team galaxy nuclei group, which also includes John Hutchings, Charles Joseph, Mary Elizabeth Kaiser, Charles Nelson, Donna Weistrop, and Bruce Woodgate. This work is a collaboration with the Nuker Team, which also includes Ralf Bender, Alan Dressler, Sandra Faber, Alex Filippenko, Carl Grillmair, Luis Ho, John Magorrian, Jason Pinkney, Christos Siopis, and Scott Tremaine.


The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: bender@noao.edu

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© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.