Studies of Seyfert Galaxies with High Spatial Resolutions

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

An investigation of the properties of Seyfert galaxies at scales of tens of lightyears to thousands of lightyears will be carried out. First, a program of direct imaging and spatially resolved spectroscopy of optical emission lines will be continued. The aims are to determine the ionization and kinematical structure of the gas, the morphology of the narrow line region and its relation to the jet-like radio continuum sources, and to isolate circumnuclear starbursts. These high resolution observations will mainly be made at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) and on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. When possible, advantage will be taken of seeing compensating systems such as the Image Stabilizing Instrument System at Mauna Kea. Second, the profiles of several ion species will be determined to investigate correlations between velocity spread, critical density, ionization potential, and radius in active galaxies. Third, high resolution, diffraction limited, imaging observations will be made in the 8 - 13 micron band with a new array camera system developed at the National Aeronautics Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center. Fourth, the properties of warm molecular gas in the circumnuclear environment will be probed by means of the 2.12 micron wavelength line of molecular hydrogen. These data and others will be confronted with spherically symmetric infall and wind outflow models of galaxies. The nature of the striking morphological similarity between the narrow line region and the radio continuum sources will be investigated. Models in which this connection represents partial beaming of the ionizing radiation along the radio axis will be explored. Lastly, the data will be used to perform a comprehensive investigation of circumnuclear starbursts in Seyfert galaxies.