Title:Nuclear Star Clusters and Black Holes

Abstract:
Nuclear star clusters appear to follow the same scaling relation as supermassive black holes in that their 
mass is proportional to the mass of their host galaxy. It has therefore been proposed that nuclear clusters 
are an alternative incarnation of "central massive objects" in lower mass galaxies. However, unlike black 
holes, nuclear clusters provide a visible record of the accretion of stars and gas into the nucleus. I will 
present our ongoing programme to obtain high spatial resolution kinematic observations of the nearest 
nuclear star clusters using adaptive optics-assisted integral-field spectroscopy. These observations 
provide important information on the formation mechanism of nuclear clusters, and allow us to estimate 
nuclear star cluster and potential black hole masses and examine scaling relations with their host 
galaxies. I will present the preliminary dynamical detection of a half-million solar mass black hole in a 
nearby bulgeless galaxy.