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Spectrum of M87 Nucleus

ALPY 600 spectrograph
ATIK 428 camera
15 |
Since M87 has been in the news recently with the radio image of the region immediately surrounding the black hole,
https://aasnova.org/2019/04/10/first-images-of-a-black-hole-from-the-event-horizon-telescope/
I thought I would take a spectrum of this region using the ALPY600. I obviously could not get anywhere near as close in as the radio image but the spectrum of the nucleus (red) shows clear emission lines of H alpha, [N II], [S II] from the material in the region surrounding the black hole, redshifted by ~1300km/s . Note the absence of these emission lines in the spectrum covering a region further out (blue). I have also included a spectrum of this region from the literature taken by the 3.6m TNG telescope in 2008 (orange) which covers the central 2x2 arc sec region from this reference
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2009/09/aa11102-08/aa11102-08.html
Also for comparison is a K3v stellar reference spectrum,shifted to match the M87 redshift. Note the similarity with the combined starlight from this mature elliptical galaxy.