Related papers: The ULX NGC 1313 X-2 : an optical study revealing …
The extreme extragalactic sources known as Ultraluminous X-ray Sources (ULX) represent a unique testing environment for compact objects population studies and the accretion process. Their nature has long been disputed. Their luminosity,…
The discovery of pulsations in several Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) demonstrated that a fraction of ULXs are powered by super-Eddington accretion onto neutron stars (NSs). This opened the debate as to what is the NS to black hole (BH)…
Optical studies of ultra-luminous X-ray sources is an essential step in understanding the nature of these enigmatic sources, and in this paper we report our studies of five ULXs in NGC4559, NGC5194, NGC1313 and NGC628 observed with the…
Constraining the astrophysical nature of Ultra-Luminous X-ray (ULX) sources, which have X-ray luminosities exceeding 10^39 erg/s, has been elusive due to the optical faintness of any counterparts. With high spectral resolution observations…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULX) are extragalactic objects with X-ray luminosities above the Eddington limit for a 10 Msun black hole (BH). ULXs may host super-Eddington accreting neutron stars or stellar mass BH, although the exact…
We present the results of NuSTAR and XMM-Newton observations of the two ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULX) NGC 1313 X-1 and X-2. The combined spectral bandpass of the two satellites enables us to produce the first spectrum of X-1 between 0.3…
In order to understand the nature of super-Eddington accretion we must explore both the emission emerging directly from the inflow and its impact on the surroundings. In this paper we test whether we can use the optical line emission of…
The bubble nebula surrounding NGC 1313 X-2 is believed to be powered by high velocity winds from the central ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) as a result of supercritical accretion. With the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE)…
NGC 925 ULX-1 and ULX-2 are two ultraluminous X-ray sources in the galaxy NGC 925, at a distance of 8.5 Mpc. For the first time, we analyzed high quality, simultaneous XMM-Newton and NuSTAR data of both sources. Although at a first glance…
In 2010 May, an intermediate luminosity optical transient was discovered in the nearby galaxy NGC 300 by a South African amateur astronomer. In the decade since its discovery, multi-wavelength observations of the misnamed ``SN 2010da'' have…
We present spectroscopic observations of three Ultra Luminous X-ray sources (ULX's). Two of them are very close to the active galaxy NGC 720 and the other is near NGC 1073. The two around NGC 720 turn out to be quasars at z=0.964 and z=…
We investigate the spectral and temporal properties of ultra-luminous X-ray source (ULX) NGC~55~ULX1 using {\it Swift}, {\it XMM-Newton} and {\it NuSTAR} observations conducted during 2013--2021. In these observations, the source flux…
We use XMM-Newton and Swift data to study spectral variability in the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX), Holmberg IX X-1. The source luminosity varies by a factor 3-4, giving rise to corresponding spectral changes which are significant, but…
Ultraluminous and hyperluminous X-ray sources (ULXs and HLXs) are among the brightest astrophysical objects in the X-ray sky. While ULXs most likely host stellar-mass compact objects accreting at super-Eddington rates, HLXs are compelling…
Archival {\it XMM-Newton}, {\it Chandra} and {\it Hubble Space Telescope (HST)} data have been used to study the X-ray and optical properties of two candidate ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in NGC\,4536. In order to search for potential…
(Abridged) Stellar mass black hole X-ray binaries exhibit X-ray spectral states which also have distinct and characteristic temporal properties. These states are believed to correspond to different accretion disk geometries. We present…
We report the results of spectral and temporal variability studies of the ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) contained within the interacting pair of galaxies NGC 4485/4490, combining Chandra and XMM-Newton observations. Each of the four…
We report the results of a 2019-2021 monitoring campaign with Swift and associated target-of-opportunity observations with XMM-Newton and NuSTAR, examining the spectral and timing behavior of the highly variable ultraluminous X-ray source…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources are considered amongst the most extremely accreting objects in the local Universe. The recent discoveries of pulsating neutron stars in ULXs strengthened the scenario of highly super-Eddington accretion…
Despite the 30-year history of ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) studies, issues like the majority of their physical natures (i.e., neutron stars, stellar-mass black holes, or intermediate black holes) as well as the accretion mechanisms…