We report the discovery of year-scale X-ray variation in the nuclear region of the M87 by reanalyzing the 8 Chandra observations from 2007 to 2008. The X-ray spectra are fitted and decomposed into the disk and flaring components. This year-scale X-ray variability can be explained quite well by a simple clumpy accretion model. We conclude that the central super-massive black hole of the M87 was accreting a cloud of ∼0.5M⊙ at that time.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2002.09122,
title = {Disk evolution of the M87's nucleus observed in 2008},
author = {Fei Xiang and Cheng Cheng},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2002.09122},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
14 pages, 6 figures, accepted by Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics