Related papers: Revisiting the ultraluminous supersoft source in M…

Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are a population of extragalactic objects whose luminosity exceeds the Eddington limit for a 10 Msun black hole (BH). Their properties have been widely interpreted in terms of accreting stellar-mass or…

In the last few years multiwavelength observations have boosted our understanding of Ultraluminous X-ray Sources (ULXs). Yet, the most fundamental questions on ULXs still remain to be definitively answered: do they contain stellar or…

We present a multiwavelength investigation of the circumnuclear environment of M31. Based on Chandra/ACIS data, we tightly constrain the X-ray luminosity of M31*, the central supermassive black hole of the galaxy, to be L (0.3-7 keV)<=…

We report on multiwavelength observations of the supersoft ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) in NGC 247 made with the Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We aligned the X-ray and optical images using three objects…

Although about 40% of the soft X-ray background emission in 0.4 to 1 keV range has extragalactic origins and thus is totally blocked by the Galactic absorption in midplane directions, it decreases at most by about 20 % in midplane. Suzaku…

We analyse the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the eclipsing supersoft X-ray source CAL 87 covering wavelengths from X-rays to the near-infrared. Our study incorporates 26 data points across ultraviolet to near-infrared, sourced from…

Galaxy-scale outflows are nowadays observed in many active galactic nuclei (AGNs); however, their characterisation in terms of (multi-) phase nature, amount of flowing material, effects on the host galaxy, is still unsettled. In particular,…

The thermal dominant state in black hole binaries (BHBs) is well understood but rarely seen in ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). Using simultaneous observations of M82 with Chandra and XMM-Newton, we report the first likely identification…

We present the analysis of the X-ray variability and spectral timing properties of the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) NGC 5408 X-1, one of the most variable ULXs known so far. The variability properties are used as a diagnostic of the…

A deep 400-ksec ACIS-S observation of the nearest quasar known, Mrk 231, is combined with archival 120-ksec data obtained with the same instrument and setup to carry out the first ever spatially resolved spectral analysis of a hot X-ray…

We have used the Chandra X-ray Observatory to resolve spatially and spectrally the X-ray emission from the Circinus Galaxy. We report here on the nature of the X-ray emission from the off-nuclear point sources associated with the disk of…

We present a systematic investigation of X-ray spectral variability of Seyfert 1 galaxies using a ``spectral-ratio model fitting'' technique, which we developed to estimate contribution of the putative clumpy absorbers to the spectral…

(Abridged) We present the results of the systematic survey of X-ray sources in the central region of M31 using the data from XMM-Newton observations performed in the years 2000-2004. The spectral properties and variability of 123 bright…

We present the results of optical panoramic and long-slit spectroscopy of the nebula MF16 associated with the Ultraluminous X-ray Source NGC6946 ULX-1. More than 20 new emission lines are identified in the spectra. Using characteristic line…

Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are some of the brightest phenomena found outside of a galaxy's nucleus, and their explanation typically invokes accretion of material onto a black hole. Here, we perform the largest population study to…

Supercritical accretion onto compact objects is expected to drive optically thick winds, resulting in observed X-ray emission as a function of viewing angle. However, their optical emission, either from the outer accretion disk or companion…

Most ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are believed to be stellar mass black holes or neutron stars accreting beyond the Eddington limit. Determining the nature of the compact object and the accretion mode from broadband spectroscopy is…

We report on the results of detailed spectral studies of the ultra-luminous X-ray source (ULX), M81 X-9 (Holmberg IX X-1), made with XMM-Newton on 2001 April 22 and with ASCA on 1999 April 6. On both occasions, the source showed an…

The highly luminous (> 10^37 erg s^-1) supersoft X-ray sources (SSS) are believed to be Eddington limited accreting white dwarfs undergoing surface hydrogen burning. The current paradigm for SSS involves thermally unstable mass transfer…

The Super Soft Source RX J0925.7--4758 was observed by BeppoSAX LECS and MECS on January 25--26 1997. The source was clearly detected by the LECS but only marginally detected by the MECS. We apply detailed Non-Local Thermodynamic…