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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
earth and planetary sciences
NuSTAR reveals the hidden nature of SS433
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 506, No. 1, Year 2021
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Description
SS433 is the only Galactic binary system known to persistently accrete at highly super-critical (or hyper-critical) rates, similar to those in tidal disruption events, and likely needed to explain the rapid growth of those very high redshift quasars containing massive SMBHs. Probing the inner regions of SS433 in the X-rays is crucial to understanding this system, and super-critical accretion in general, but is highly challenging due to obscuration by the surrounding wind, driven from the accretion flow. NuSTAR observed SS433 in the hard X-ray band across multiple phases of its 162 d superorbital precession period. Spectral-timing tools allow us to infer that the hard X-ray emission from the inner regions is likely being scattered towards us by the walls of the wind-cone. By comparing to numerical models, we determine an intrinsic X-ray luminosity of ≥ 2 × 1037 erg s-1 and that, if viewed face on, we would infer an apparent luminosity of >1 × 1039 erg s-1, confirming SS433's long-suspected nature as an ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX). We present the discovery of a narrow, ∼100 s lag due to atomic processes occurring in outflowing material travelling at least 0.14-0.29c, which matches absorption lines seen in ULXs and - in the future - will allow us to map a super-critical outflow for the first time. © 2021 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.
Authors & Co-Authors
Middleton, Matthew J.
United Kingdom, Southampton
University of Southampton
Walton, Dominic James
United Kingdom, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
Dauser, Thomas
Germany, Erlangen
Friedrich-alexander-universität Erlangen-nürnberg
Eikenberry, Stephen S.
United States, Gainesville
University of Florida
Fabian, Andrew C.
United Kingdom, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
Brightman, Murray
United States, Pasadena
California Institute of Technology
Marshall, Herman L.
United States, Cambridge
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Parker, Michael L.
France, Paris
European Space Agency - Esa
Harrison, Fiona A.
France, Paris
European Space Agency - Esa
Bachetti, Matteo
Italy, Rome
Istituto Nazionale Di Astrofisica, Rome
Altamirano, Diego
United Kingdom, Southampton
University of Southampton
Bird, Antony J.
United Kingdom, Southampton
University of Southampton
Miller-Jones, James C.A.
Australia, Perth
Curtin University
Charles, Philip A.
United Kingdom, Southampton
University of Southampton
Boggs, Stephen E.
United States, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
Christensen, Finn Erland E.
Denmark, Lyngby
Technical University of Denmark
Forster, Karl G.
France, Paris
European Space Agency - Esa
Grefenstette, Brian W.
France, Paris
European Space Agency - Esa
Hailey, Charles J.
United States, New York
Columbia University
Madsen, Kristin Kruse
France, Paris
European Space Agency - Esa
Stern, Daniel K.
United States, Pasadena
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Zhang, William W.
United States, Greenbelt
Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center
Statistics
Citations: 18
Authors: 22
Affiliations: 15
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1093/mnras/stab1280
ISSN:
00358711
Research Areas
Environmental