The time-variable ultraluminous x-ray sources of "the antennae"

G Fabbiano, A Zezas, AR King, Trevor Ponman, A Rots, F Schweizer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

67 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We report the first results of the Chandra temporal monitoring of the ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in the Antennae galaxies (NGC 4038/4039). Observations at four different epochs, covering timescales of 2 yr to 2 months, show variability in seven out of nine ULXs, confirming that they are likely to be accreting compact X-ray binaries. The seven variable ULXs exhibit a variety of temporal and spectral behaviors: one has harder X-ray colors with decreasing luminosity, similar to the black hole binary Cyg X-1, but four other ULXs show the opposite behavior. We suggest that the latter may be black hole binaries accreting at very high rates.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)L5-L8
JournalThe Astrophysical Journal
Volume584
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Feb 2003

Keywords

  • galaxies : peculiar
  • X-rays : galaxies
  • galaxies : interactions
  • galaxies : individual (NGC 4038/4039)
  • X-rays : binaries

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