Studying Active Galactic Nuclei with NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

Prof. Roberto Assef – Universidad Diego Portales

Active Galactic Nuclei, or AGN, are actively accreting supermassive black holes at the centers of massive galaxies. The energetic output of AGN can vary widely, and at the highest accretion rates can become brighter than the entire galaxy. In fact, it is believed that AGN play a fundamental role in shaping the evolution of the most massive galaxies in the Universe. In this talk I will provide a brief overview of what is known about the evolution of massive galaxies, and I will provide a brief overview of the structure of AGNs. I will also present our ongoing efforts to study AGN using NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), which imaged the entire sky using four mid-IR broad band filters to unprecedented depths. Specifically, I will discuss our efforts to identify large numbers of «regular» AGN with WISE and show our recent results focusing on an interesting subsample of these objects. Finally, I will also present our ongoing efforts in studying the most luminous obscured AGN identified by the WISE mission, the so-called Hot Dust Obscured Galaxies or Hot DOGs.

Miércoles 24 de octubre del 2018, 14:00 hrs, Sala Sergio del Campo
Facultad de Ciencias, Campus Curauma, PUCV