BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:The core of the matter – spatially resolving the nuclei of Activ
 e Galaxies with VLTI/GRAVITY - Eckhard Sturm\, MPE
DTSTART:20200123T160000Z
DTEND:20200123T170000Z
UID:TALK135820@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dominic Walton
DESCRIPTION:One of the most exciting opportunities offered by the new VLT
  beam combiner GRAVITY is to directly resolve the immediate regions around
  the super-massive black holes (SMBHs) in the centres of active galaxies (
 AGN)\, i.e. the Broad Line Region (BLR) and the hot dust (“torus”) str
 uctures. We are exploiting this capability to study the inner workings of 
 AGN in the K-band on unprecedented micro-arcsecond (sub-pc) spatial scales
 . This has led to the first interferometric detection of a BLR (finding o
 rdered rotation and measuring the black hole mass in the quasar 3C273)\, a
 s well as to the first 0.2 parsec resolution K-band image of the dust subl
 imation region in the nucleus of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC1068 (finding a r
 ing-like structure which is inconsistent with the expected signatures of a
  geometrically and optically thick torus). I will summarize these and othe
 r recent results\, discuss their scientific (and historical) context\, and
  give an outlook how such observations (along with already planned or pote
 ntial future upgrades of GRAVITY) might contribute to the study of the str
 uctures and physical processes around SMBHs or to the study of how SMBHs b
 uild up their mass across cosmic time. 
LOCATION:Sackler Lecture Theatre\, IoA (tea at 3:30 pm)
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR