Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T17:20:23.906Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Variability of ultraluminous X-ray sources in the Cartwheel Ring

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2006

Anna Wolter
Affiliation:
INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via Brera 28, 20121 Milano, Italy email: [email protected], [email protected]
Ginevra Trinchieri
Affiliation:
INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via Brera 28, 20121 Milano, Italy email: [email protected], [email protected]
Monica Colpi
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Fisica G. Occhialini, Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 3, 20126 Milano, Italy email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The Cartwheel is one of the most outstanding examples of a dynamically perturbed galaxy where star formation is occurring inside the ring–like structure. In previous studies with Chandra, we detected 16 Ultra Luminous X-ray sources lying along the southern portion of the ring. Their Luminosity Function is consistent with them being in the high luminosity tail of the High Mass X-ray Binaries distribution, but with one exception: source N.10. This source, detected with Chandra at LX = 1 × 1041 erg s−1, is among the brightest non–nuclear sources ever seen in external galaxies. Recently, we have observed the Cartwheel with XMM-Newton in two epochs, six months apart. After having been at its brightest for at least 4 years, the source has dimmed by at least a factor of two between the two observations. This fact implies that the source is compact in nature. Given its extreme isotropic luminosity, there is the possibility that the source hosts an accreting intermediate–mass black hole. Other sources in the ring vary in flux between the different datasets. We discuss our findings in the context of ULX models.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2007

References

Dewangan, G. C., Titarchuk, L. & Griffiths, R. E. 2006, ApJ, 637, L21CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gao, Y., Wang, Q. D., Appleton, P. N. & Lucas, R. A. 2003, ApJ, 596, 171CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaaret, P. et al. 2001, MNRAS, 321, L29CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matsumoto, H., Tsuru, T. G., Koyama, K., Awaki, H., Canizares, C. R., Kawai, N. et al. 2001, ApJ, 547, 25CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ptak, A. & Griffiths, R. 1999, ApJ, 517, L1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strohmayer, T. E. & Mushotzky, R. F. 2003, ApJ, 586, L61CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Struck, C., Appleton, P. N., Borne, K. D. & Lucas, R. A. 1996, AJ, 112, 1868CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolter, A., Trinchieri, G. & Iovino, A. 1999, A&A, 342, 41Google Scholar
Wolter, A. & Trinchieri, G. 2004, A&A, 426, 787, WT04Google Scholar
Wolter, A., Trinchieri, G. & Colpi, M. 2006, MNRAS, 373, 1627CrossRefGoogle Scholar