Related papers: A transient ultraluminous X-ray source in NGC 55
Based on our long (~ 300 ks) 2007 XMM-Newton observation of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 1365, we report here on the spectral and timing behaviour of two ultraluminous X-ray sources, which had previously reached isotropic X-ray luminosities L_X ~…
We perform empirical fits to the \emph{Chandra} and \emph{XMM-Newton} spectra of three ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 891, monitoring the region over a seventeen year time window. One of these sources…
Some ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are surrounded by collisionally ionized bubbles, larger and more energetic than supernova remnants: they are evidence of the powerful outflows associated with super-Eddington X-ray sources. We…
Chandra observations of 17 nearby galaxies were analysed and 166 bright sources with X-ray counts > 100, were chosen for temporal analysis. Fractional root mean square variability amplitudes were estimated for lightcurves binned at ~ 4 ksec…
X-ray spectral state transitions are a key signature of black hole X-ray binaries and follow a well-defined pattern. We examined 12 XMM-Newton observations of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 1313, which harbors two compact ultraluminous X-ray…
We present a new analysis of X-ray spectra of the archetypal ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) Holmberg IX X-1 obtained by the Swift, XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observatories. This ULX is a persistent source, with a typical luminosity of ~10^40…
NGC 55 ULX1 is a bright Ultraluminous X-ray source located 1.78 Mpc away. We analysed a sample of 20 Swift observations, taken between 2013 April and August, and two Chandra observations taken in 2001 September and 2004 June. We found only…
We report the detection of weak pulsations from the archetypal ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) NGC 1313 X-2. Acceleration searches reveal sinusoidal pulsations in segments of two out of six new deep observations of this object, with a…
We present an analysis of the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) population in 75 Virgo cluster late-type galaxies, including all those with a star formation rate >~ 1 M_{sun}/yr and a representative sample of the less star-forming ones. This…
The nature of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) -- off-nuclear extra-galactic sources with luminosity, assumed isotropic, $\gtrsim 10^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$ -- is still debated. One possibility is that ULXs are stellar black holes accreting…
The brightest Ultra-Luminous X-ray source (ULX), ESO 243-49 HLX-1, with a 0.2 - 10 keV X-ray luminosity of up to 10^42 erg s^-1, provides the strongest evidence to date for the existence of intermediate mass black holes. Although small…
We report the results of a programme of dual-epoch Chandra ACIS-S observations of five ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in nearby spiral galaxies. All five ULXs are detected as unresolved, point-like X-ray sources by Chandra, though two…
Recently, several ultraluminous X-ray (ULX) sources were shown to host a neutron star (NS) accretor. We perform a suite of evolutionary calculations which show that, in fact, NSs are the dominant type of ULX accretor. Although black holes…
This paper reports the discovery of a bright X-ray transient source, Suzaku J1305-4913, in the south-west arm of the nearby Seyfert II galaxy NGC 4945. It was detected at a 0.5 -- 10 keV flux of $2.2 \times 10^{-12}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are enigmatic sources first discovered in the 1980s in external galaxies. They are characterized by their extraordinarily high X-ray luminosity, which often exceeds $10^{40}\, \rm{erg \; s^{-1}}$. Our…
Using archival data from Suzaku, XMM-Newton, and NuSTAR, nine representative Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in nearby galaxies were studied. Their X-ray spectra were all reproduced with a multi-color disk emission model plus its…
We present the results of an archival XMM-Newton study of the bright X-ray point sources (L_X > 10^38 erg/s) in 32 nearby galaxies. From our list of approximately 100 point sources, we attempt to determine if there is a low-state…
We study the evolution of newborn neutron stars in high-mass X-ray binaries interacting with a wind-fed super-Eddington disk. The inner disk is regularized to a radiation-dominated quasi-spherical configuration for which we calculate the…
We present a high-quality hard X-ray spectrum of the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) NGC 5643 X-1 measured with NuSTAR in May-June 2014. We have obtained this spectrum by carefully separating the signals from the ULX and from the active…
The study of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) has changed dramatically over the last decade. In this review we first describe the most important observations of ULXs in various wavebands, and across multiple scales in space and time. We…