Black holes and galaxies – the heart of the matter

Supermassive black holes are now known to reside at the centre of nearly all galaxies, and they have a mass that is usually 0.2% that of their hosts. This is most surprising, since supermassive black holes are tiny in relation to their host galaxy – their relative diameter is comparable to that of a DNA molecule in the human body. Why the mass of central black holes should be so closely linked to that of the vastly larger galaxies they inhabit is one of the hottest questions in astronomy today. This talk will explain how astronomers measure the mass of supermassive black holes and what the correlation between their masses and that of their hosts tells us about the formation and evolution of galaxies as a whole.

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About Marc Sarzi

Marc Sarzi obtained his PhD in astronomy at the University of Padua where he started his work on the nuclei of galaxies and their central black holes. After his thesis, he moved first to Durham and then to Oxford. At Oxford he began an observing programme to measure the mass of supermassive black holes with adaptive optics on the Very Large Telescope and Gemini North telescope. Marc is currently an STFC Advanced Fellow in the Centre for Astrophysics Research at the University of Hertfordshire.

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