Related papers: Variability of ultraluminous X-ray sources in the …
We present the results from the high resolution Chandra observation of the Cartwheel galaxy. Many individual sources are resolved in the image, mostly associated with the outer ring. All detected sources have a very high X-ray luminosity…
The extreme environment provided by the Cartwheel ring is analyzed to study its X-ray and optical-UV properties. We compare the Cartwheel with the other members of its group and study the system as a whole in the X-ray band. We analyze the…
We report the first detection of flux variability in the most luminous X-ray source in the southern ring of the Cartwheel galaxy. XMM--Newton data show that the luminosity has varied over a timescale of six months from L[0.5-10] keV \~1.3…
We report the Chandra/ACIS-S detection of more than 20 ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs, L_{0.5-10 keV} >~ 3 x 10^{39} ergs/sec) in the Cartwheel collisional ring galaxy system, of which over a dozen are located in the outer active…
The Cartwheel galaxy harbours more Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) than any other galaxy observed so far, and as such it is a particularly interesting target to study them. In this paper we analyse the three Chandra observations of the…
We analyse all the available Chandra observations of the Cartwheel Galaxy and its compact group, taken between 2001 and 2008, with the main aim of addressing the variability in the X-ray band for this spectacular collisional ring galaxy. We…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are amongst the most intriguing of X-ray source classes. Their extreme luminosities - greater than 10^39 erg/s in the 0.3 - 10 keV band alone - suggest either the presence of black holes larger than those…
We present 26 point-sources discovered with Chandra within 200" (~20kpc) of the center of the barred supergiant galaxy NGC 1365. The majority of these sources are high-mass X-ray binaries, containing a neutron star or a black hole accreting…
Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of the Cartwheel galaxy show ~17 bright X-ray sources (>~5x10^38 erg s^-1), all within the gas-rich outer ring. We explore the hypothesis that these X-ray sources are powered by intermediate-mass black…
In this paper we report on Chandra observations of the starburst galaxy NGC 922. NGC 922 is a drop-through ring galaxy with an expanding ring of star formation, similar in many respects to the Cartwheel galaxy. The Cartwheel galaxy is…
The advanced capabilities of the Chandra and XMM-Newton observatories mean that, for the first time, the detailed study of the brightest point-like X-ray sources in nearby galaxies outside of the local group is a realistic aim. Here, we…
We present highlights from a study of a sample of 10 extreme-luminosity candidate ultraluminous X-ray sources (L_X > 5 x 10^(40) erg sec^(-1)), all at distances < 100 Mpc, identified from a cross-correlation of the RC3 catalogue of galaxies…
We report the discovery of a new ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) associated with a globular cluster in the elliptical galaxy NGC 4649. The X-ray source was initially detected with a luminosity below 5 x 10^38 erg/s, but in subsequent…
We studied the colliding galaxy NGC 7714 with two XMM-Newton observations, six months apart. The galaxy contains two bright X-ray sources: we show that they have different physical nature. The off-nuclear source is an accreting compact…
We present results of a Chandra survey of the ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULX) in 13 normal galaxies, in which we combine source detection with X-ray flux measurement. 22 ULX were detected, i.e. with L_x > 1 x 10^{39} erg s^{-1} (L_10),…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are accreting black holes that may contain the missing population of intermediate mass black holes or reflect super-Eddington accretion physics. Ten years of Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of ULXs,…
The Cartwheel, archetypical ring galaxy with strong star formation activity concentrated in a peculiar annular structure, has been imaged with the CHANDRA ACIS-S instrument. We present here preliminary results, that confirm the high…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULX) are off-nuclear point sources in nearby galaxies whose X-ray luminosity exceeds the theoretical maximum for spherical infall (the Eddington limit) onto stellar-mass black holes. Their luminosity ranges from…
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 ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) were isolated in external galaxies for the last 5 years. Their X-ray luminosities exceed 100-10000 times those of brightest Milky Way black hole binaries and they are extremely variable. There are two…