Fitting the Background in Astronomical Spectra

Telescopes have recorded the spectra from an enormous number of distant galaxies. This information is publicly available in a variety of databases such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). By processing available spectra, several research groups have characterized the relationship between the mass of black holes at the center of each galaxy and the mass of that galaxy. Understanding that relationship is important for understanding the evolution of galaxies in the early universe. In order to automatically process thousands of spectral files, it is necessary to first fit the background of these spectra. This poster will discuss the methods we have explored to perform this fit.