Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21343707i&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #437.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.310
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
1
Scientific paper
We report [O III] lambda-5007 and [N II] lambda-6584 emission from the globular cluster harboring the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) CXOJ033831.8-352604 in the Fornax elliptical galaxy NGC1399. The odds of finding either optical emission lines or ULXs separately within a globular cluster are small enough that the optical emission lines are undoubtedly associated with the ULX. The high (10 times Eddington), steady X-ray luminosity of the source strongly argues that it is an accreting black hole rather than a neutron star. We investigate scenarios for which the ULX could produce forbidden line emission lines without the benefit of significant interstellar gas surrounding it in its gas-poor globular cluster environment. One intriguing possibility is that the forbidden lines emanate from X-ray illuminated debris of a star that has been tidally-disrupted by an intermediate-mass black hole, with this debris also feeding the the black hole leading to the observed X-ray emission. The lack of accompaning H-alpha and H-beta emission lines in the optical spectrum could imply that the disrupted star lacked hydrogen, such as a white dwarf.
Bregman Jesse
Brink T.
Irwin Jimmy
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