HLX-1

Last updated
Hyper-Luminous Xray source 1
ESO 243-49 (HST).jpg
ESO 243-49 (center) with HLX-1 (circled) [1]
Observation data
Epoch J2000        Equinox J2000
Constellation Phoenix [2]
Right ascension 01h 10m 28.2s
Declination −46° 04′ 22.2″ [3]
Details
Mass 102–105  M☉

Hyper-Luminous X-ray source 1, commonly known as HLX-1, is an intermediate-mass black hole candidate located in the lenticular galaxy ESO 243-49 about 290 million light-years from Earth. The mass of its central black hole is estimated to be approximately 20,000 solar masses. [4] The source was discovered at the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP, formerly the CESR), Toulouse, France and gained interest from the scientific community because of strong evidence supporting it as an intermediate-mass black hole. [3] HLX-1 is possibly the remnant of a dwarf galaxy that may have been in a galactic collision with ESO 243-49. [5]

Contents

Discovery

The object was first observed in November 2004, in which it was seen as a source emitting X-rays in the outskirts of the spiral galaxy ESO 243-49 and was catalogued as 2XMM J011028.1-460421, but nicknamed "HLX-1". [6] In 2008, a team of astronomers led by Natalie Webb at the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie in Toulouse, France, discovered HLX-1 and from the very high X-ray luminosity (~1×1042 erg s−1, 0.2–10.0 keV), as well as its X-ray characteristics, proposed that it was an intermediate mass black hole candidate. [3]

Follow up analysis using further X-ray, [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] optical [12] [13] and radio [14] observations support the intermediate-mass black hole nature. In 2012, further work showed that there was a small cluster of stars amassed around HLX-1, leading Sean Farrell and collaborators [12] to conclude that the black hole was once the galactic center of a dwarf galaxy, which was consumed by ESO 243-49. [15] [16] Farrell remarked, "The fact that there's a very young cluster of stars indicates that the intermediate-mass black hole may have originated as the central black hole in a very low-mass dwarf galaxy. The dwarf galaxy was then swallowed by the more massive galaxy.". [17]

ESO 243-49

ESO 243-49
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Right ascension 01h 10m 27.755s [18]
Declination −46° 04′ 27.34″ [18]
Heliocentric radial velocity 6,782 km/s [19]
Distance 376.2  Mly (115.35  Mpc) [19]
Group or cluster Abell A2870 [19]
Apparent magnitude  (B)14.92 [20]
Characteristics
Type S0a [21]
Apparent size  (V)46.6″ × 14.0″ [22] (NIR)
Other designations
2MASX J01102774-4604274, LEDA 4181 [23]

ESO 243-49 is a lenticular galaxy in the southern constellation of Phoenix. It is located at a distance of approximately 380 million light-years from the Milky Way galaxy. [19] ESO 243-49 is a member of the Abell 2877 galaxy cluster, which has 89 known members. It lies at a projected separation of about 0.98 Mly (0.3 Mpc) from the dominant central cluster galaxy, IC 1633. [21]

The morphological classification of ESO 243-49 is S0a, indicating this is a lenticular galaxy. It is being viewed edge-on from the perspective of the Earth. An attempt in 2015 to detect radio continuum emission of neutral hydrogen from this galaxy was unsuccessful, suggesting it is a gas poor galaxy compared to similar field galaxies. This may be the result of its gas reservoir being depleted due to its location near the center of a galaxy cluster. [21]

The galaxy has prominent dust lanes around the nucleus, while UV emission from the bulge region suggests star formation is in progress. These may be indications that the galaxy has recently undergone a minor merger event. [24] In contrast, the disk of the galaxy consists of old stars that suggest general star formation was quenched a few billion years after the galaxy formed. [25]

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References

  1. ↑ "Edge-on Spiral Galaxy ESO 243-49". Hubblesite. NASA. February 17, 2012. Retrieved 2024-08-03.
  2. ↑ Beatty, Kelly (2009-07-03). "New Candidates for Midsize Black Holes". Sky & Telescope. Archived from the original on 2012-05-03. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
  3. 1 2 3 Farrell, Sean (2009-07-02). "An intermediate-mass black hole of over 500 solar masses in the galaxy ESO 243-49". Nature . 460 (7251): 73–5. arXiv: 1001.0567 . Bibcode:2009Natur.460...73F. doi:10.1038/nature08083. PMID   19571880. S2CID   4344293.
  4. ↑ "ESO 243-49, a large spiral galaxy in Phoenix". 3 November 2012.
  5. ↑ Webb, Natalie (2010-02-19). "Chandra and Swift Follow-up Observations of the Intermediate Mass Black Hole in ESO 243-49". The Astrophysical Journal. 712 (1): L107–L110. arXiv: 1002.3625 . Bibcode:2010ApJ...712L.107W. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/712/1/L107. S2CID   118393250.
  6. ↑ Ford, Matt (2009-07-02). "Odd Black Hole Is Last Survivor of Its Galaxy". Ars Technica.
  7. ↑ Godet, Olivier (2009-09-24). "First evidence for spectral state transitions in the ESO243-49 hyper luminous X-ray source HLX-1". The Astrophysical Journal. 705 (2): L109–L112. arXiv: 0909.4458 . Bibcode:2009ApJ...705L.109G. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/705/2/L109. S2CID   272396.
  8. ↑ Godet, Olivier (2012-04-16). "Investigating slim disk solutions for HLX-1 in ESO 243-49". The Astrophysical Journal. 752 (1): 34. arXiv: 1204.3461 . Bibcode:2012ApJ...752...34G. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/752/1/34. S2CID   20418449.
  9. ↑ Servillat, Mathieu (2011-08-22). "X-ray Variability and Hardness of ESO 243-49 HLX-1: Clear Evidence for Spectral State Transitions". The Astrophysical Journal. 743 (1): 6. arXiv: 1108.4405 . Bibcode:2011ApJ...743....6S. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/743/1/6. S2CID   118687377.
  10. ↑ Davis, Shane (2011-04-13). "The Cool Accretion Disk in ESO 243-49 HLX-1: Further Evidence of an Intermediate Mass Black Hole". The Astrophysical Journal. 734 (2): 111. arXiv: 1104.2614 . Bibcode:2011ApJ...734..111D. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/734/2/111. S2CID   4730425.
  11. ↑ Lasota, Jean-Pierre (2011-02-21). "The origin of variability of the intermediate-mass black-hole ULX system HLX-1 in ESO 243-49". The Astrophysical Journal. 735 (2): 89. arXiv: 1102.4336 . Bibcode:2011ApJ...735...89L. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/735/2/89. S2CID   118611917.
  12. 1 2 Farrell, Sean (2012-01-10). "A Young Massive Stellar Population Around the Intermediate Mass Black Hole ESO 243-49 HLX-1". The Astrophysical Journal. 747 (1): L13. arXiv: 1110.6510 . Bibcode:2012ApJ...747L..13F. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/747/1/L13. S2CID   119291891.
  13. ↑ Wiersema, Klaas (2010-08-24). "A Redshift for the Intermediate Mass Black Hole Candidate HLX-1: Confirmation of its Association with the Galaxy ESO 243-49". The Astrophysical Journal. 721 (2): L102–L106. arXiv: 1008.4125 . Bibcode:2010ApJ...721L.102W. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/721/2/L102. S2CID   119194158.
  14. ↑ Webb, Natalie (2012-07-05). "Radio Detections During Two State Transitions of the Intermediate-Mass Black Hole HLX-1". Science . 337 (6094): 554–556. arXiv: 1311.6918 . Bibcode:2012Sci...337..554W. doi:10.1126/science.1222779. hdl:2060/20140010250. PMID   22767898. S2CID   1652904.
  15. ↑ Mann, Adam (2012-02-15). "Odd Black Hole Is Last Survivor of Its Galaxy". Wired News.
  16. ↑ Grossman, Lisa (2012-02-17). "Astrophile: 'Missing link' black hole is stress eater". New Scientist . Reed Business Information.
  17. ↑ Moskowitz, Chris (2012-02-16). "How a black hole survived the destruction of its galaxy". The Christian Science Monitor.
  18. 1 2 Brown, A. G. A.; et al. (Gaia collaboration) (2021). "Gaia Early Data Release 3: Summary of the contents and survey properties". Astronomy & Astrophysics . 649: A1. arXiv: 2012.01533 . Bibcode:2021A&A...649A...1G. doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202039657 . S2CID   227254300. (Erratum:  doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202039657e). Gaia EDR3 record for this source at VizieR.
  19. 1 2 3 4 Tully, R. Brent; et al. (August 2016). "Cosmicflows-3". The Astronomical Journal. 152 (2): 21. arXiv: 1605.01765 . Bibcode:2016AJ....152...50T. doi: 10.3847/0004-6256/152/2/50 . S2CID   250737862. 50.
  20. ↑ Lauberts, A.; Valentijn, E. A. (1989). The Surface Photometry Catalogue of the ESO-Uppsala Galaxies. Bibcode:1989spce.book.....L.
  21. 1 2 3 Musaeva, A.; et al. (February 2015). "H I study of the environment around ESO 243-49, the host galaxy of an intermediate-mass black hole". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 447 (2): 1951–1961. arXiv: 1412.2439 . Bibcode:2015MNRAS.447.1951M. doi: 10.1093/mnras/stu2606 .
  22. ↑ Skrutskie, M. F.; et al. (February 2006). "The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS)". The Astronomical Journal. 131 (2): 1163–1183. Bibcode:2006AJ....131.1163S. doi:10.1086/498708. ISSN   0004-6256.
  23. ↑ "ESO 243-49", SIMBAD , Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg , retrieved 2024-08-03.
  24. ↑ Mapelli, M.; et al. (July 2013). "A minor merger scenario for the ultraluminous X-ray source ESO 243-49 HLX-1 - II. Constraints from photometry". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 433 (1): 849–866. arXiv: 1305.0565 . Bibcode:2013MNRAS.433..849M. doi: 10.1093/mnras/stt767 .
  25. ↑ Comerón, S.; et al. (September 2016). "A monolithic collapse origin for the thin and thick disc structure of the S0 galaxy ESO 243-49". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 593. id. L6. arXiv: 1608.04238 . Bibcode:2016A&A...593L...6C. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201629292.
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