Taking the Pulse of GRS 1915+105 with Astrosat

Among the different types of peculiar variability of GRS 1915+105, the so-called "heartbeat" is particularly interesting because of its regularity and has been studied extensively with RossiXTE data. We analyzed a long observation of GRS 1915+105 taken with the laxpc intrument on board Astrosat. GRS 1915+105 was displaying its heartbeat, but showed two distinct types of beats: normal ones with a strong peak and 'blunt' ones without. We constructed a template of the peakless beats and show that the peaks are consistent with being associated to a different component. In many observations, RossiXTE only saw a few isolated beats without a peak. We present the characteristics of the peaks and discuss their possible nature and connection to jet ejection.