[en] Infrared (IR) interferometry has made widely recognised contributions to the way we look at the dusty environment of supermassive black holes on parsec scales. It finally provided direct evidence for orientation-dependent unification of active galaxies, however it also showed that the classical "torus" picture is oversimplified. New scientific opportunities for AGN have been suggested, and will soon be carried out, focusing on the dynamical aspects of spectrally and spatially resolved interferometry, as well as the potential to employ interferometry for cosmology. This will open interferometry to new scientific communities.
Disciplines :
Space science, astronomy & astrophysics
Author, co-author :
Hönig, Sebastian F.; Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, England
Herrero, Almudena Alonso; Centro de Astrobiología (CAB, CSIC-INTA), ESAC Campus, Madrid, Spain
Gandhi, Poshak; Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, England
Kishimoto, Makoto; Kyoto Sangyo University, Kyoto, Japan
Pott, Jörg-Uwe; Max-Planck Institut für Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany
Almeida, Cristina Ramos; Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC), Tenerife, Spain
Surdej, Jean ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO)
Tristram, Konrad R. W.; European Southern Observatory, Santiago 19, Chile)
Language :
English
Title :
New active galactic nuclei science cases with interferometry - An incomplete preview
