(http://www.physics.rutgers.

edu)

Analyzing the Universe - Course Wiki

(index.html): A Mystery on Many
(https://www.coursera.org/learn/analyze/home/welcome)Analyzing
the Universe Physical Scales - Black Holes
(https://www.coursera.org/learn/analyze/home/welcome)
This week we also observe the Quasar
Week 1 (week1.html)
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar) 3C 273, so it would serve us
well to learn more about these unimaginably energetic galaxies.
Week 2 (week2.html) For this portion of the wiki we will explore four short pages on
Quasars, AGN, and Black Holes. This reading is mandatory and
Week 3 (week3.html)
you will be asked questions on the quiz relating to the material.
Week 4 (week4.html)

Week 5 (week5.html)
Basic Overview of Black Hole
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole) Varieties
Week 6 (week6.html)

The first reading comes from www.SpaceTelescope.org

6.1 Galaxy Clusters/Dark
(http://www.spacetelescope.org/science/black_holes/), which briefly describes
Matter (clusters.html)
black holes, supermassive black holes
6.2 Black Holes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermassive_black_hole), and quasars.
(black_holes.html)
(If you have difficulties seeing the iframe or it is blank, click here
6.3 Hubble's Law (http://www.spacetelescope.org/science/black_holes/).)
(Hubble_law.html)

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 Black holes,
quasars and
active galaxies

p://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9822b/)

disk of dust and gas accreting around a 300

ion solar-mass black hole in NGC 7052.
Black holes are objects so dense, and with
h th t li ht t

Its Feeding Time! - Active Galactic Nuclei

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_galactic_nucleus
("AGNs" )

Your second reading in this section is the Cambridge University education page on
active galactic nuclei (https://www-
xray.ast.cam.ac.uk/xray_introduction/AGN_intro.html). These galaxies are special
in that the supermassive objects in their cores are actively feeding on infalling
material. The feeding causes these incredibly massive objects to be anything but
black!

(If you have difficulties seeing the iframe or it is blank, click here (https://www-
xray.ast.cam.ac.uk/xray_introduction/AGN_intro.html).)

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 Active Galactic
Nuclei (AGN)
In some galaxies the central region is
observed to outshine all the billions of
stars in the galaxy itself. The spectrum is
not like that observed from stars and the
emission is observed to be bright at all
wavelengths. The luminosity varies on
very short timescales, less than a day, and
this means that the size of the central
region is less than one light-day across
(six times the distance from the Sun to

Our third reading assignment in this section is an education page from Swinburne
University (https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/A/Active+Galactic+Nuclei) that
describes these brightly emitting supermassive black holes in greater detail. Pay
close attention to why we can see light at all from an object that has such a strong
gravitational field that not even something traveling with speed "c" can escape!
Also look at the possible explanation of the jets of material that the AGNs are
often associated with.

(If you have difficulties seeing the iframe or it is blank, click here
(https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/A/Active+Galactic+Nuclei).)

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 COSMOS - The SAO Encyclopedia of Astronomy › A

A G N
Many galaxies have very bright nuclei, so bright that the cen
the remaining galaxy light. These nuclei are called active ga
the energy output of AGNs is of a non-thermal (non-stellar) t
strong emitters of X-rays, radio and ultraviolet radiation, as
luminosity on short (hours or days) timescales. This means
must be of order light hours or light days (respectively) in siz
mechanism.

Carl Seyfert discovered the first class of AGN, that are now na
galaxies display emission lines. Type 1 Seyfert galaxies have b
emission lines. The broad lines imply gas velocities of 1000 –

The Quasar/AGN Connection

Our final reading assignment is an education page from NASA's Imagine the
Universe
(http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/active_galaxies.html) that
covers AGN and quasars. By the end you should see how we believe quasars and
AGN are related to each other!

(If you have difficulties seeing the iframe or it is blank, click here
(http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/active_galaxies.html).)

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