Gravitationally redshifted emission implying an accretion disk and massive black hole in the active galaxy MCG-6-30-15

Physics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

723

Scientific paper

ACTIVE galactic nuclei and quasars are probably powered by the accretion of gas onto a supermassive black hole at the centre of the host galaxy1, but direct confirmation of the presence of a black hole is hard to obtain. As the gas nears the event horizon, its velocity should approach the speed of light; the resulting relativistic effects, and a gravitational redshift arising from the proximity to the black hole, should be observable, allowing us to test specific predictions of the models with the observations. Here we report the detection of these relativistic effects in an X-ray emission line (the Kα line) from ionized iron in the galaxy MCG-6-30-15. The line is extremely broad, corresponding to a velocity of ~100,000 km s-1, and asymmetric, with most of the line flux being redshifted. These features indicate that the line most probably arises in a region between three and ten Schwarzschild radii from the centre, so that we are observing the innermost region of the accretion disk.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Gravitationally redshifted emission implying an accretion disk and massive black hole in the active galaxy MCG-6-30-15 does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Gravitationally redshifted emission implying an accretion disk and massive black hole in the active galaxy MCG-6-30-15, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Gravitationally redshifted emission implying an accretion disk and massive black hole in the active galaxy MCG-6-30-15 will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-756901

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.