Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-dtkg6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-24T06:40:47.925Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The sub-parsec, geometrically thick, self-gravitating accretion disk in the nucleus of NGC 3079

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2004

Paul T. Kondratko
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA email: pkondrat@cfa.harvard.edu
L. J. Greenhill
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA email: pkondrat@cfa.harvard.edu
J. M. Moran
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA email: pkondrat@cfa.harvard.edu
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We have mapped, for the first time, the full velocity extent of the water maser emission in NGC 3079. Based on the analysis of the spectral-line maps, we propose a nearly edge-on, massive, thick, and flared disk for the geometric model of the inner parsec. The disk orbits a mass of $\sim2\times 10^6 M_{\odot}$ enclosed within 0.4 pc, most likely a supermassive black hole. The disk is most likely self-gravitating, clumpy, and supportive of star formation. The presence in our VLBI continuum images of an aging synchrotron component, which is not collinear with the previously imaged jet, might be suggestive of changes in jet orientation. The jet may coexist on pc-scales with a wide-angle outflow, that is related to the kpc-scale superbubble and that is inferred from the observation of dense molecular material at high latitudes above the disk.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

Type
POSTERS
Copyright
© 2004 International Astronomical Union