The central kinematics of NGC 1399 measured with 14pc resolution

Journal article

We present near infra-red (NIR) adaptive optics assisted spectroscopic observations of the CO ($\Delta\mu=2$) absorption bands towards the centre of the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1399. The observations were made with NAOS-CONICA (ESO VLT) and have a FWHM resolution of 0\farcs15 (14pc). Kinematic analysis of the observations reveals a decoupled core and strongly non-Gaussian line-of-sight velocity profiles (VPs) in the central 0.2 arcsec (19pc). NIR imaging also indicates an asymmetric elongation of the central isophotes in the same region. We use spherical orbit-superposition models to interpret the kinematics, using a set of orthogonal ``eigenVPs'' that allow us to fit models directly to spectra. The models require a central black hole of mass $1.2^{+0.5}_{-0.6}\times10^9M_\odot$, with a strongly tangentially biased orbit distribution in the inner 40pc.

Authors: Houghton, R; Magorrian, J; Sarzi, M; Thatte, N; Davies, R

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Volume: 367
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 2-18
• Publication date: 2005-10-10
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.09713.x
• EISSN: 1365-2966
• ISSN: 0035-8711
• Language: English
• Keywords: astro-ph