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 Aug 25, 2023  1  

Astronomy & Space \ Astronomy  Editors' notes

First observations ever of the outskirts of a supermassive

black hole's accretion disk
by Josie Fenske , NSF's NOIRLab

An artist’s impression of a supermassive black hole with an accretion disk orbiting it. T he annotations show a hypothetical
double-peaked profile with arrows indicating where in the broad line region each peak originates. Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P.
Marenfeld

Not hing can evoke an exist ent ial perspect ive-spiral quit e like looking at an image of a galaxy. At
first glance, t hese sublime st ruct ures may appear rat her serene. But in fact t he cent er of many
galaxies is a t urbulent environment cont aining an act ively feeding supermassive black hole.

Orbit ing t hese incomprehensibly

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St udying accret ion disks can enhance ast ronomers' underst anding of black holes and t he
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evolut ion of t heir host galaxies. Most accret ion disks, however, are impossible t o direct ly image
because of t heir ext reme dist ances and relat ively small sizes. Inst ead, ast ronomers use t he
spect ra of light emit t ed from wit hin t he disk t o charact erize it s size and behavior.

Using t his approach, ast ronomers using t he Gemini Nort h t elescope, one half of t he Int ernat ional
Gemini Observat ory, operat ed by NSF's NOIRLab, have made t he first det ect ion ever of t wo near-
infrared emission lines in t he accret ion disk of t he galaxy III Zw 002, placing a new limit on t he
size of t hese magnificent st ruct ures.

To underst and t hese observat ions, let 's first lay some groundwork by discussing what emission
lines are and what t hey t ell us about t he regions around supermassive black holes.

Emission lines result when an at om in an excit ed st at e drops t o a lower energy level, releasing
light in t he process. Since every at om has a unique set of energy levels, t he emit t ed light has a
discret e wavelengt h t hat act s like a fingerprint ident ifying it s origin. Emission lines commonly
appear in spect ra as t hin, sharp spikes.

But in t he swirling vort ex of an accret ion disk, where t he excit ed gas is under t he supermassive
black hole's gravit at ional influence and moving at speeds of t housands of kilomet ers per second,
t he emission lines broaden int o shallower peaks. The region of t he accret ion disk where t hese
lines originat e is called t he broad line region.

As st at ed earlier, accret ion disks are exceedingly difficult t o image direct ly, wit h only t wo
sources having been imaged t hanks t o t he high angular-resolut ion capabilit y of t he Event Horizon
Telescope. So, barring access t o a global net work of radio t elescopes, how do ast ronomers
know when a supermassive black hole has a disk around it ? It t urns out t hat evidence of an
accret ion disk can be found in a specific pat t ern of t he broad emission lines called a double-
peaked profile.

Because t he disk is rot at ing, t he gas on one side is moving away from t he observer, while t he gas
on t he ot her side is moving t owards t he observer. These relat ive mot ions st ret ch and squeeze
emission lines t o longer and short er wavelengt hs respect ively. What result s is a broadened line
wit h t wo dist inct peaks, one originat ing from each side of t he rapidly spinning disk.

These double-peaked profiles are a rare phenomenon since t heir occurrence is limit ed t o sources
t hat can be observed nearly face-on. In t he few sources in which it has been observed, t he
double peak has been found in t he H-alpha and H-bet a lines—t wo emission lines from hydrogen
at oms t hat appear in t he visible wavelengt h range.

Originat ing from t he inner region of t he broad line region near t he supermassive black hole, t hese
lines provide no evidence about how big t he accret ion disk is in it s ent iret y. But recent
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Denimara Dias dos Sant os, a Ph.D. st udent at t he Inst it ut o Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais in
Brazil and lead aut hor of t he paper, in collaborat ion wit h Albert o Rodriguez-Ardila, Swayamt rupt a
Panda and Murilo Marinello, researchers at t he Laborat ório Nacional de Ast rofísica in Brazil, has
made t he first unambiguous det ect ion of t wo near-infrared double-peaked profiles in t he broad
line region of III Zw 002.

The Paschen-alpha (hydrogen) line originat es in t he inner region of t he broad line region, and t he O
I (neut ral oxygen) line originat es in t he out skirt s of t he broad line region, a region t hat has never
been observed before. These are t he first double-peaked profiles t o be found in t he near-
infrared, and t hey emerged unexpect edly during observat ions wit h t he Gemini Near-Infrared
Spect rograph (GNIRS).

2003 observat ions of III Zw 002 in t he visible revealed evidence of an accret ion disk, and a 2012
st udy found similar result s. In 2021, Rodriguez-Ardila and his t eam set out t o supplement t hese
findings wit h observat ions in t he near-infrared using GNIRS, which is capable of observing t he
ent ire near-infrared spect rum (800–2500 nanomet ers) all in one go.

Ot her inst rument s require t he user t o swit ch bet ween mult iple filt ers t o cover t he same range,
which can be t ime consuming and can pot ent ially int roduce uncert aint y as at mospheric
condit ions and calibrat ions change bet ween observat ions.

Because GNIRS is capable of making simult aneous observat ions across mult iple bands of light ,
t he t eam was able t o capt ure a single clean, consist ent ly calibrat ed spect rum in which mult iple
double-peaked profiles were revealed. "We didn't know previously t hat III Zw 002 had t his double
peaked profile, but when we reduced t he dat a we saw t he double peak very clearly," said
Rodriguez-Ardila. "In fact , we reduced t he dat a many t imes t hinking it could be a mist ake, but
every t ime we saw t he same excit ing result ."

These observat ions not only confirm t he t heorized presence of an accret ion disk, but also
advance ast ronomer's underst anding of t he broad line region.

"For t he first t ime, t he det ect ion of such double peaked profiles put s firm const raint s on t he
geomet ry of a region t hat is ot herwise not possible t o resolve," said Rodriguez-Ardila. "And we
now have clear evidence of t he feeding process and t he inner st ruct ure of an act ive galaxy."

By comparing t hese observat ions wit h exist ing disk models, t he t eam was able t o ext ract
paramet ers t hat provide a clearer pict ure of III Zw 002's supermassive black hole and broad line
region.

The model indicat es t hat t he Paschen-alpha line originat es at a radius of 16.77 light -days (t he
dist ance light t ravels in one Eart h day as measured from t he supermassive black hole), and t he O
I line originat es at a radius of 18.86 light -days. It also predict s t hat t he out er radius of t he broad
line region is 52.43 light -days. The model also indicat es t hat III Zw 002's broad line region has an
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"This discovery gives us valuable insight s int o t he st ruct ure and behavior of t he broad line region
in t his part icular galaxy, shedding light on t he fascinat ing phenomena happening around
supermassive black holes in act ive galaxies," said Rodriguez-Ardila.
Following t his discovery, Dias dos Sant os, Rodriguez-Ardila, Panda and Marinello are now
monit oring III Zw 002, as it s accret ion disk is expect ed t o follow a precession pat t ern around t he
supermassive black hole. They want t o see how t he line profiles change wit h t ime, since
precession causes different int ensit ies in t he blue and red peaks. So far, t he model remains
consist ent wit h t heir observat ions. These result s also open up t he possibilit y of using near-
infrared det ect ion t o st udy ot her AGNs.

The work is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters .

Mo re info rmatio n: Denimara Dias dos Santos et al, First Observation of a Double-peaked O i Emission in the
Near-infrared Spectrum of an Active Galaxy, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2023).
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ace974

Jo urnal info rmatio n: Astrophysical Journal Letters 

Provided by NSF's NOIRLab

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