Nuclear Star Clusters and Black Holes

We summarize the recent results of our survey of the nearest nuclear star clusters. The purpose of the survey is to understand nuclear star cluster formation mechanisms and constrain the presence of black holes using adaptive optics assisted integral field spectroscopy, optical spectroscopy, and HST...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Seth, A, Cappellari, M, Neumayer, N, Caldwell, N, Bastian, N, Olsen, K, Blum, R, Debattista, V, McDermid, R, Puzia, T, Stephens, A
Format: Conference item
Published: 2010
Description
Summary:We summarize the recent results of our survey of the nearest nuclear star clusters. The purpose of the survey is to understand nuclear star cluster formation mechanisms and constrain the presence of black holes using adaptive optics assisted integral field spectroscopy, optical spectroscopy, and HST imaging in 13 galaxies within 5 Mpc. We discuss the formation history of the nuclear star cluster and possible detection of an intermediate mass BH in NGC 404, the nearest S0 galaxy. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.