This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Dr Moran will undertake a survey of the optical spectra of galaxies closer than about 250 million light years, making a census of their nuclear activity, which is powered by a central black hole. He will select galaxies from both the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and a survey in neutral hydrogen from the Arecibo radio telescope, in the 4600 square degrees where these overlap. Where the spectra from SDSS are not of adequate quality, he will obtain his own spectra. The contribution of the galaxy's starlight will be subtracted from the spectrum, to reveal the nuclear activity powered by the black hole. Dr. Moran expects to find at least 100 nearby galaxies with an active nucleus, most of which will harbor black holes between 1,000 and 1,000,000 times as massive as our Sun. These will allow him to investigate the faint end of the relation between a galaxy's luminosity and the mass of its central black hole.
Undergraduate students and master's level students will be involved in the research. The award will also support a research assistant. Dr Moran will make live web broadcasts from observatories, to bring his research experience into the classroom for introductory courses for non-science majors. He will also make the final database of spectra available to the astronomical community.
