X-ray through NIR photometry of NGC 2617

DOI

After the All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae discovered a significant brightening of the inner region of NGC 2617, we began a ~70 day photometric and spectroscopic monitoring campaign from the X-ray through near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths. We report that NGC 2617 went through a dramatic outburst, during which its X-ray flux increased by over an order of magnitude followed by an increase of its optical/ultraviolet (UV) continuum flux by almost an order of magnitude. NGC 2617, classified as a Seyfert 1.8 galaxy in 2003, is now a Seyfert 1 due to the appearance of broad optical emission lines and a continuum blue bump. Such "changing look active galactic nuclei (AGNs)" are rare and provide us with important insights about AGN physics. Based on the H{beta} line width and the radius-luminosity relation, we estimate the mass of central black hole (BH) to be (4+/-1)x10^7^ M_{sun}_. When we cross-correlate the light curves, we find that the disk emission lags the X-rays, with the lag becoming longer as we move from the UV (2-3 days) to the NIR (6-9 days). Also, the NIR is more heavily temporally smoothed than the UV. This can largely be explained by a simple model of a thermally emitting thin disk around a BH of the estimated mass that is illuminated by the observed, variable X-ray fluxes.

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.17880048
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/788/48
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/788/48
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/788/48
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/788/48
Provenance
Creator Shappee B.J.; Prieto J.L.; Grupe D.; Kochanek C.S.; Stanek K.Z.,De Rosa G.; Mathur S.; Zu Y.; Peterson B.M.; Pogge R.W.; Komossa S.; Im M.,Jencson J.; Holoien T.W-S.; Basu U.; Beacom J.F.; Szczygiel D.M.,Brimacombe J.; Adams S.; Campillay A.; Choi C.; Contreras C.; Dietrich M.,Dubberley M.; Elphick M.; Foale S.; Giustini M.; Gonzalez C.; Hawkins E.,Howell D.A.; Hsiao E.Y.; Koss M.; Leighly K.M.; Morrell N.; Mudd D.,Mullins D.; Nugent J.M.; Parrent J.; Phillips M.M.; Pojmanski G.,Rosing W.; Ross R.; Sand D.; Terndrup D.M.; Valenti S.; Walker Z.; Yoon Y.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2017
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Cosmology; Galactic and extragalactic Astronomy; High Energy Astrophysics; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics