The central kinematics of NGC 1399 measured with 14 pc resolution

We present near infra-red (NIR) adaptive optics assisted spectroscopic observations of the CO (�µ = 2) absorption bands towards the centre of the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1399. The observations were made with NAOS-CONICA (ESO VLT) and have a FWHM resolution of 0. 15 (14pc). Kinematic analysis of the observations reveals a decoupled core and strongly non-Gaussian line-of-sight velocity profiles (VPs) in the central 0.2 arcsec (19pc). NIR imaging also indicates an asymmetric elongation of the central isophotes in the same region. We use spherical orbit-superposition models to interpret the kinematics, using a set of orthogonal “eigenVPs” that allow us to fit models directly to spectra. The models require a central black hole of mass 1.2 +0.5 −0.6 ×10 9 M⊙, with a strongly tangentially biased orbit distribution in the inner 40pc.

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