Related papers: Swift J1644+57: An Ultra-Luminous X-ray Event

We present a spectral study of the ultraluminous Be/X-ray transient pulsar Swift J0243.6+6124 using Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) observations during the system's 2017--2018 giant outburst. The 1.2--10~keV energy…

Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) have been objects of great interest for the past few decades due to their unusually high luminosities and spectral properties. A few of these sources exhibit super-Eddington luminosities assuming them to…

Observations of luminous flares resulting from the possible tidal disruption of stars by supermassive black holes have raised a number of puzzles. Outstanding questions include the origin of the optical and ultraviolet (UV) flux, the…

During a close encounter between a star and a supermassive black hole, the star can get disrupted by the black hole's tidal forces, resulting in a tidal disruption event (TDE). The accretion of the star's material onto the black hole…

We report on XMM-Newton/Chandra/Swift/HST observations of the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) in NGC 247, which is found to make transitions between the supersoft ultraluminous (SSUL) regime with a spectrum dominated by a cool ($\sim 0.1$…

Time-resolved SALT spectra of the short-period, dipping X-ray transient, Swift J1357.2-0933, during its 2017 outburst has revealed broad Balmer and HeII4686 absorption features, blue-shifted by ~600 km/s. Remarkably these features are also…

A tidal disruption event (TDE) is an astronomical phenomenon in which a previously dormant black hole (BH) destroys a star passing too close to its central part. We analyzed the flaring episode detected from the TDE sources, Swift~J1644+57…

Variability is a powerful tool to investigate properties of X-ray binaries (XRB), in particular for Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) that are mainly detected in the X-ray band. For most ULXs the nature of the accretor is unknown, although…

Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) with 10^39 < L_x < 10^41 erg/s have been discovered in great numbers in external galaxies with ROSAT, Chandra, and XMM-Newton. The central question regarding this important class of sources is whether they…

On March 28, 2011, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope triggered on an object that had no analog in over six years of Swift operations. Follow-up observations by the Swift X-ray Telescope (XRT) found a new, bright X-ray source covering 3 orders…

Fast blue optical transients (FBOTs) represent one of the most exotic astrophysical transients, exhibiting unusually strong emission across X-ray, optical, and radio wavelengths. Their physical origins remain highly debated, with proposed…

We present the results of the analysis of the SRG/ART-XC observation of the Supergiant Fast X-ray Transient IGR J16195-4545 performed on March 3, 2021. Six bright flares are present in the light curve, with no significant change in hardness…

We present two years of intense Swift monitoring of three SFXTs, IGR J16479-4514, XTE J1739-302, and IGR J17544-2619 (since October 2007). Out-of-outburst intensity-based X-ray (0.3-10keV) spectroscopy yields absorbed power laws with by…

Despite two decades of studies, it is still not clear whether ULX spectral transitions are due to stochastic variability in the wind or variations in the accretion rate or in the source geometry. The compact object is also unknown for most…

We report on the Swift/X-ray Telescope (XRT) monitoring of the field of view around the candidate supergiant fast X-ray transient (SFXT) IGR J17354-3255, which is positionally associated with the AGILE/GRID gamma-ray transient AGL…

IGR J17544-2619 and XTE J1739-302 are considered the prototypical sources of the new class of High Mass X-ray Binaries, the Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients (SFXTs).These sources were observed during bright outbursts on 2008 March 31 and…

We have re-examined the most luminous X-ray sources in the starburst galaxy NGC 4631, using XMM-Newton, Chandra and ROSAT data. The most interesting source is a highly variable supersoft ULX. We suggest that its bolometric luminosity ~ a…

Energetic nuclear outbursts have been discovered in luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (U/LIRGs) at unexpectedly high rates. To investigate this population of transients, we performed a search in mid-IR data from the Wide-field…

We report results from joint NuSTAR, Swift and XMM-Newton observations of the newly discovered black hole X-ray binary candidate Swift J1658.2-4242 in the intermediate state. We observe a peculiar event in this source, with its X-ray flux…

We report on the discovery and observations of the extremely luminous optical transient CSS100217:102913+404220 (CSS100217 hereafter). Spectroscopic observations show this transient was coincident with a galaxy at redshift z=0.147, and…