An extremely luminous panchromatic outburst from the nucleus of a distant galaxy
Abstract
Variable X-ray and gamma-ray emission is characteristic of the most extreme physical processes in the Universe, and studying the sources of these energetic photons has been a major driver in astronomy for the past 50 years. Here we present multiwavelength observations of a unique gamma-ray selected transient, discovered by Swift, which was accompanied by bright emission across the electromagnetic spectrum, and whose properties are unlike any previously observed source. We pinpoint the event to the center of a small, star-forming galaxy at redshift z=0.3534. Its high-energy emission has lasted much longer than any gamma-ray burst, while its peak luminosity was about 100 times higher than the brightest active galactic nuclei. The association of the outburst with the center of its host galaxy suggests that this phenomenon has its origin in a new, rare mechanism associated with a massive black hole in the nucleus of a galaxy.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1104.3356,
title = {An extremely luminous panchromatic outburst from the nucleus of a distant galaxy},
author = {A. J. Levan and N. R. Tanvir and S. B. Cenko and D. A. Perley and K. Wiersema and J. S. Bloom and A. S. Fruchter and A. de Ugarte Postigo and P. T. O'Brien and N. Butler and A. J. van der Horst and G. Leloudas and A. N. Morgan and K. Misra and G. Bower and J. Farihi and R. L. Tunnicliffe and M. Modjaz and J. M. Silverman and J. Hjorth and C. Thoene and A. Cucchiara and J. M. Castro Ceron and A. Castro-Tirado and J. A. Arnold and M. Bremer and J. P. Brodie and T. Carroll and M. C. Cooper and P. A. Curran and R. M. Cutri and J. Ehle and D. Forbes and J. Fynbo and J. Gorosabel and J. Graham and S. Guizy and D. I. Hoffman and P. Jakobsson and A. Kamble and T. Kerr and M. M. Kasliwal and C. Kouveliotou and D. Kocesvki and N. M. Law and P. E. Nugent and E. O. Ofek and D. Poznanski and R. M. Quimby and E. Rol and A. J. Romanowsky and R. Sanchez-Ramirez and S. Schulze and N. Singh and R. L. C. Starling and R. G. Strom and P. J. Wheatley and R. A. M. J. Wijers and J. M. Winters and T. Wold and D. Xu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1104.3356},
year = {2015}
}