Related papers: Object-X: The Brightest Mid-IR Point Source in M33
We report the XMM-Newton detection of a moderately bright X-ray source superimposed on the outer arms of the inactive spiral galaxy MCG-03-34-63 (z=0.0213). It is clearly offset from the nucleus (by about 19'') but well within the D25…
The most luminous X-ray source in the Local Group is associated with the nucleus of M33. This source, M33 X-8, appears modulated by ~20% over a ~106 day period, making it unlikely that the combined emission from unresolved sources could…
Four XMM-Newton observations of the core of M31, spaced at 6 month intervals, show that the brightest point X-ray source, RX J0042.6+4115, has a 0.4-10 keV luminosity of ~5 10^38 erg/s, and exhibits significant variability in intensity and…
Combining the relative vicinity of the Local Group spiral galaxy M33 with the Spitzer images, we investigate the properties of infrared (IR) emission sites and assess the reliability of the IR emission as a star formation tracer. The mid-…
A previously undetected X-ray source (L_X<10**36 erg/s) in the strongly star-forming galaxy M83 entered an ultraluminous state between August 2009 and December 2010. It was first seen with Chandra on 23 December 2010 at L_X ~ 4 10**39…
The emission-line dwarf galaxy NGC 3413 is known to host a bright X-ray source near its optical center. The 0.3-10 keV luminosity of this source is estimated to be approximately 10$^{39}$ erg$s^{-1}$ potentially qualifying it as an…
The nearby galaxy M33 hosts the most luminous steady X-ray source in the Local Group. The high spatial resolution of Chandra allows us to confirm that this ultra-luminous X-ray source is within the nucleus and rule out at the 4.6 sigma…
We show with a short Chandra HRC-S exposure that the powerful X-ray source coincident with the nucleus of M33 is unresolved at the highest spatial resolution available to date (0"4). The source flux is variable, doubling during the 5 ks…
Recent surveys of the Local Group spiral Galaxies M31 and M33 with XMM-Newton yielded a large number of X-ray sources. As part of the effort to identify and classify the objects responsible for this X-ray emission, we have obtained optical…
We present optical identification and characterization of counterparts of four objects previously catalogued as ultra-luminous X-ray sources. The objects were selected from the Colbert & Ptak (2002) catalogue. The optical counterparts are…
(abridged) In the hunt for rare time-domain events, confusing exotic extragalactic phenomena with more common Galactic foreground events is an important consideration. We show how observations from multiple wavebands, in this case optical…
I report the analysis of an ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) located in the galaxy NGC 1291. This X-ray point source is denominated IXO6 in the Catalog of Candidate IXO (Colbert & Ptak). An Intermediate-luminosity X-ray Object (IXO) is…
The closest known ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX), M33 X-8, has been recently observed with NuSTAR during its Extragalactic Legacy program, which includes a hard X-ray survey of the M33 galaxy. We present results of two long observations…
We present new astrometric solutions and infrared Hubble Space Telescope observations of GX 17+2 (X1813-140), one of the brightest X-ray sources on the celestial sphere. Despite 30 years of intensive study, and the existence of a strong…
The small subset of hyper-luminous X-ray sources with luminosities in excess of ~1E41 erg/s are hard to explain without the presence of an intermediate mass black hole, as significantly super-Eddington accretion and/or very small beaming…
We present results from a 47 ks observation of the Andromeda galaxy, M31, using the High-Resolution Camera of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. We detect 142 point sources spanning three orders of magnitude in luminosity, from $L_X = 2\times…
The existence of black holes of masses ~ 10^2-10^5 Msun has important implications for the formation and evolution of star clusters and supermassive black holes. One of the strongest candidates to date is the hyperluminous X-ray source…
We present the results from a ~53 ksec XMM observation of NGC 2276. This galaxy has an unusual optical morphology with the disk of this spiral appearing to be truncated along the western edge. This XMM observation shows that the X-ray…
Combining the relative vicinity of the Local Group spiral galaxy M33 with the Spitzer images, we investigate the properties of infrared (IR) emission sites and assess the reliability of the IR emission as a star formation tracer. We…
We present the identification and characterization of the optical counterpart to 2XMM J011942.7+032421, one of the most luminous and distant ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs). The counterpart is located near a star forming region in a…