|
| 04/30/02
| |
XILOURIS EMMANUEL |
CEA/SACLAY |
| GIF-sur-Yvette | SF2A- |
|
91191 |
SACLAY, FRANCE |
Presentation 1 : Oral
A morphological comparison between the central region in AGN and normal galaxies using HST data
E.M. Xilouris, I.E. Papadakis
We study the morphology of the central region of a sample of AGNs and a
``control'' sample of normal galaxies using archival observations of the
WFPC2 instrument onboard the HST. We perform quantitative comparisons of
different subgroups of our sample of galaxies by calculating the average
amplitude of the structures that are revealed when applying the ellipse
fitting technique. We find that all AGN show significant micro-structures
in their central regions. Among the non-AGN galaxies those of early-type
show no structures, while the late-type normal galaxies show structures
similar to those detected in AGNs. We discuss briefly the implications of
our results in view of the hypothesis that all galaxies host a supermassive
black hole.