Locating the Two Black Holes in NGC 6240
Claire E. Max,1,2*
Gabriela Canalizo,1,3
Willem H. de Vries1,4
Mergers play an important role in galaxy evolution and are key to understanding the correlation between central–black hole mass and host-galaxy properties. We used the new technology of adaptive optics at the Keck II telescope to observe NGC 6240, a merger between two disk galaxies. Our high-resolution near-infrared images, combined with radio and x-ray positions, revealed the location and environment of two central supermassive black holes. Each is at the center of a rotating stellar disk, surrounded by a cloud of young star clusters. The brightest of these young clusters lie in the plane of each disk, but surprisingly are seen only on the disks' receding side.
1 Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, CA 94550, USA.
2 Center for Adaptive Optics, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
3 Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics and Department of Physics, University of California, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
4 Department of Physics, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: max{at}ucolick.org
