Uncovering a Hidden Mini-Monster: A Heavily Obscured AGN in a Dwarf Star-forming Galaxy

In the past decade, nearby dwarf galaxies have emerged as an exciting observational laboratories for studying the still-mysterious origin of supermassive black holes in the early Universe. While a number of dwarf AGN have now been identified, there may exist a significant population of heavily obscured dwarf AGN that are yet to be discovered. We present X-ray and multiwavelength observations of a (heretofore unique) heavily obscured AGN in the nucleus of the nearby dwarf galaxy Mrk 462. The source was identified as an X-ray AGN through Chandra and multiwavelength observations, and its heavily obscured nature (with column density approaching Compton-thick) was confirmed with a deep XMM-Newton spectrum. This result may point toward the existence of a large population of heavily obscured dwarf AGN, with implications for the origin of supermassive black holes. This work is supported by NASA through the XMM-Newton Guest Observer Program as well as the National Science Foundation through CAREER Award 1554584.