Professor Mike Brotherton

University of Wyoming

How to Weigh a Black Hole and Other Adventures in Quasar Physics

Abstract: Quasars are extraordinarily luminous but spatially unresolved objects at the centers of distant galaxies believed to be powered by black holes up to billions of times more massive than our own sun. Determining the mass of quasars and their other fundamental properties is challenging, but required to understand these enigmatic objects and how they interact with their host galaxies. I will describe how we know what they are, how we currently measure their basic properties, and how we can do it better in the future.​