Monitoring Variable X-ray Sources in Nearby Galaxies
Abstract
In the last decade, it has been possible to monitor variable X-ray sources in nearby galaxies. In particular, since the launch of Chandra, M31 has been regularly observed. It is perhaps the only nearby galaxy which is observed by an X-ray telescope regularly throughout operation. With 10 years of observations, the center of M31 has been observed with Chandra for over 1 Msec and the X-ray skies of M31 consist of many transients and variables. Furthermore, the X-ray Telescope of Swift has been monitoring several ultraluminous X-ray sources in nearby galaxies regularly. Not only can we detect long-term X-ray variability, we can also find spectral variation as well as possible orbital period. I will review some of the important Chandra and Swift monitoring observations of nearby galaxies in the last decade. I will also discuss the possibility to use MAXI for X-ray monitoring observations of nearby galaxies.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1102.3212,
title = {Monitoring Variable X-ray Sources in Nearby Galaxies},
author = {Albert K. H. Kong},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1102.3212},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
6 pages, 4 figures; to appear in Proceedings of the 4th International MAXI Workshop `The First Year of MAXI: Monitoring variable X-ray sources'