Galaxy Zoo: AGN host galaxies

We find that the black hole growth at luminosities L[OIII]>10^40^erg/s in early- and late-type galaxies is fundamentally different. AGN host galaxies as a population have a broad range of stellar masses (10^10^-10^11^M_{sun}_), reside in the green valley of the color-mass diagram and their central black holes have median masses around 10^6.5^M_{sun}_.

However, by comparing early- and late-type AGN host galaxies to their non-active counterparts, we find several key differences: in early-type galaxies, it is preferentially the galaxies with the least massive black holes that are growing, while in late-type galaxies, it is preferentially the most massive black holes that are growing. At high-Eddington ratios (L/L_Edd_>0.1), the only population with a substantial fraction of AGNs are the low-mass green valley early-type galaxies.