AGN SIG Spotlight Series, 17 Nov 2026
Our Spotlight Series highlights recent advances in AGN science, with a strong emphasis on participation from early-career researchers, and includes plenty of time for community discussion following the presentations. The post AGN SIG Spotlight Series, 17 Nov 2026 appeared first on NASA Science .
The AGN SIG Spotlight Series, held on November 17, 2026, focused on recent advances in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) science. The event was entirely virtual and featured Dr. Johannes Buchner from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, who presented on the latest eROSITA AGN studies.
Dr. Buchner's presentation highlighted recent results derived from eROSITA's X-ray all-sky survey, which discovered over 20,000 AGN. By combining SDSS spectroscopy and modelling techniques, black hole mass estimates were obtained. The multi-wavelength SED analysis code GRAHSP provided unbiased host stellar mass estimates even for luminous AGN. These techniques revealed over-massive black holes (OMBHs) with masses ten times greater than those found in typical Milky Way-mass galaxies.
The eROSITA survey also provided a wealth of X-ray data, enabling the creation of rest-frame X-ray spectral stacks of SDSS quasars. These stacks revealed the soft excess spectrum as a function of black hole mass, Eddington ratio, and X-ray to UV luminosity ratio.
The second presentation was by Dr. Ryan Pfeifle from the US Naval Observatory. He discussed a new population of spatially resolved mid-IR dual AGNs within the DESI Legacy Survey fields. Using multiwavelength selection strategies, the researchers identified 155 candidates based on their spatially resolved W1-W2 mid-IR colors and confirmed that 77 of these candidates reside in galaxy mergers.
Over 50% of these dual AGN candidates exhibit projected separations of 50 kpc or more, highlighting the importance of multiwavelength selection strategies in understanding dual AGNs as a population.
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