Radio Detections During Two State Transitions of the Intermediate-Mass Black Hole HLX-1
Abstract
Relativistic jets are streams of plasma moving at appreciable fractions of the speed of light. They have been observed from stellar-mass black holes (~3 to 20 solar masses, M⊙) as well as supermassive black holes (~106 to 109 M⊙) found in the centers of most galaxies. Jets should also be produced by intermediate-mass black holes (~102 to 105 M⊙), although evidence for this third class of black hole has, until recently, been weak. We report the detection of transient radio emission at the location of the intermediate-mass black hole candidate ESO 243-49 HLX-1, which is consistent with a discrete jet ejection event. These observations also allow us to refine the mass estimate of the black hole to be between ~9 × 103 M⊙ and ~9 × 104 M⊙.
- Publication:
-
Science
- Pub Date:
- August 2012
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.1222779
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1311.6918
- Bibcode:
- 2012Sci...337..554W
- Keywords:
-
- ASTRONOMY;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- 13 pages, includes supplementary online information. Published in Science in August 2012