%0 Generic
%A Neumayer, Nadine
%D 2006
%F heidok:7182
%K Abbildende Spektroskopieactive galactic nucleus , black hole , adaptive optics , interacting galaxy , integral-field spectroscopy
%R 10.11588/heidok.00007182
%T The nucleus of Centaurus A
%U https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/7182/
%X At less than 4 Mpc away, Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is the nearest massive elliptical galaxy, the nearest radio galaxy, and the nearest recent merger. It is the ideal laboratory to study the connection between merging, massive black holes, the source of radio jets, and merger-induced star formation in detail. Using Naos-Conica and SINFONI at the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), we obtained adaptive optics (AO) assisted data at unprecedented spatial resolution. We demonstrate that thorough kinematical modelling of AO data is feasible and leads to an accurate measurement of the black hole mass. We find that depending on their ionisation level, different gas species display different flux distributions and velocity structures. In this respect, integral-field-unit data are crucial to identify non-gravitational gas motions. The H2 gas kinematics inside the central r<1.5 arcsec of the active galactic nucleus are successfully described by a (warped) gas disk, rotating in the joint gravitational potential of the stars and a black hole of Mbh~7x10^7 Msolar. With our revised Mbh estimate, that is a factor ~3 lower than previous measurements, Cen A is no longer a dramatic outlier in the Mbh-sigma relation. Near-infrared images in JHK reveal marginally resolved stellar clusters, comparable in their properties to young starburst clusters found close to the Galactic Centre.