Towards the end of 2022 the GOALS collaboration finished several more papers from our JWST Early Release Science program. These additional papers focused on the immediate surroundings the actively growing black hole in NGC 7469 (Armus+), the population of star clusters in VV 114 that are hidden by dust and previously unseen at optical wavelengths (Linden+), and attempting to identify the location of the claimed supermassive black hole (SMBH) in VV 114 (Rich+). These papers have been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and will appear as part of a focus issue.
- “GOALS-JWST: Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy of the Nucleus of NGC 7469” (Armus+)
- “GOALS-JWST: Revealing the Buried Star Clusters in the Luminous Infrared Galaxy VV 114” (Linden+)
- “GOALS-JWST: Pulling Back the Curtain on the AGN and Star Formation in VV 114” (Rich+)
In recent months I have also be involved with the confirmation of a close (230pc) separation pair of actively growing supermassive black holes. These types of objects are important for our understanding of the eventual mergers of supermassive black holes after galaxy mergers and their gravitationl wave emission, with the latter expected to be detected with future gravitational wave facilities. The SMBHs in the galaxy merger remnant UGC 4211 were identified at multiple wavelengths, including a recently proposed high-resolution millimeter continuum diagnostic. This discovery is described in “UGC 4211: A Confirmed Dual Active Galactic Nucleus in the Local Universe at 230 pc Nuclear Separation” (Koss+) and was also the subject of a press release by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory: “ALMA Scientists Find Pair of Black Holes Dining Together in Nearby Galaxy Merger”.