Seyfert Galaxies

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2024-12-28 05:00:03

Almost all Seyfert galaxies are spiral galaxies and have been among the most intensively studied objects in astronomy, primarily because they are thought to be nearby, low-luminosity versions of the same phenomenon observed in quasars. A massive black hole in the nucleus of a galaxy, accreting gas from its surrounding environment, is thought to power all these objects. Of course, we do not see the black hole itself, but the UV continuum radiation is generally presumed to be thermal emission from the hot gas that forms an accretion disk surrounding the black hole.