Today: More Chapter 14, Active Galaxies | |
Many Views of Radio Galaxy Centaurus A
Many galaxies have extremely bright “unresolved” star-like nuclei |
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Very large energy generation | |||
Brightness often varies quickly | |||
Implies small size (changes not smeared out by light-travel time) | |||
High velocities often seen (> 10,000 km/s in lines) | |||
Emission all over the electro-magnetic spectrum | |||
Jets seen emerging from galaxies | |||
More common in colliding galaxies | |||
More common at large distances (redshift): Quasars! | |||
So more common in distant past (look-back time) |
Relativistic Doppler (Red) Shift
Classical Doppler Effect: | |
Also refer to Δλ/λ as the “redshift” or “z” | |
What if z is so large that v => c? | |
v (z + 1)2 - 1 | |
c (z + 1)2 + 1 |
Relativistic Doppler (Red) Shift
Escape velocity from the surface at radius R is | |||
At small enough R we have VEscape= c (speed of light) | |||
That R is by definition the Schwarzschild radius | |||
Far from the black hole gravity is the same as for any ordinary mass M | |||
Stars will just orbit around it like any other mass | |||
Gas orbiting it collides, tries to slow down, (just like reentering satellite) | |||
As gas falls inward it ends up speeding up and heating up | |||
Gas will be moving at close to speed of light by the time it reaches RS | |||
Light emitted by hot gas just outside RS can still escape | |||
Provides a way to release about 10% of E=mc2 of energy | |||
Fusion releases only about 1% | |||
Signature of black hole: Very high energy release, very high velocity | |||
Black hole is “active” only if gas is present to spiral into it | ||
Isolated stars just orbit black hole same as they would any other mass | ||
Gas collides, tries to slow due to friction, and so spirals in (and heats up) | ||
Conservation of angular momentum causes gas to form a disk as it spirals in |
Different Views of the Accretion Disk
The torus of gas and dust can block part of our view | ||
Seyfert 2 galaxies: Edge on view Only gas well above and below disk is visible See only “slow” gas Þ narrow emission lines |
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Seyfert 1 galaxies: Slightly tilted
view Hot high velocity gas close to black hole is visible High velocities Þ broad emission lines |
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BL Lac objects: Pole on view Looking right down the jet at central region Extremely bright – vary on time scales of hours |
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Quasars: Very active AGN at large
distances Can barely make out the galaxy surrounding them Were apparently more common in distant past |
Different Views of the Accretion Disk
The torus of gas and dust can block part of our view | ||
Seyfert 2 galaxies: Edge on view Only gas well above and below disk is visible See only “slow” gas Þ narrow emission lines |
||
Seyfert 1 galaxies: Slightly tilted
view Hot high velocity gas close to black hole is visible High velocities Þ broad emission lines |
||
BL Lac objects: Pole on view Looking right down the jet at central region Extremely bright – vary on time scales of hours |
||
Quasars: Very active AGN at large
distances Can barely make out the galaxy surrounding them Were apparently more common in distant past |
Different Views of the Accretion Disk
The torus of gas and dust can block part of our view | ||
Seyfert 2 galaxies: Edge on view Only gas well above and below disk is visible See only “slow” gas Þ narrow emission lines |
||
Seyfert 1 galaxies: Slightly tilted
view Hot high velocity gas close to black hole is visible High velocities Þ broad emission lines |
||
BL Lac objects: Pole on view Looking right down the jet at central region Extremely bright – vary on time scales of hours |
||
Quasars: Very active AGN at large
distances Can barely make out the galaxy surrounding them Were more common in distant past |
Quasar Images III: “Starburst-Quasar”
Need a supply of gas to feed to the black hole | ||
(Black holes from 1 million to >1 billion solar masses! | ||
Scales as a few percent of galaxy bulge mass.) | ||
Collisions disturb regular orbits of stars and gas clouds | ||
Could feed more gas to the central region | ||
Galactic orbits were less organized as galaxies were forming, also recall the “hierarchical” galaxy formation | ||
Expect more gas to flow to central region when galaxies are young => Quasars (“quasar epoch” around z=2 to z=3) | ||
Most galaxies may have massive black holes in them | ||
They are just less active now because gas supply is less |
A nice website: http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/www_astro/agn/agn_beginners.html | |
Other links on the website will take you to movies showing quasar structure, and discussing unified models. |
Chapter 14: Galaxies with Active Nuclei
Discovery of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) | ||
Seyfert Galaxies and Radio Sources | ||
The Unified Model | ||
Black Holes in Galaxies, disks, orientation, + | ||
Quasars | ||
Distances and Relativistic Redshifts | ||
Quasars as extreme AGN | ||
Evolution of Quasars/Galaxies | ||
Gravitational Lensing |