Utilizing NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory, astronomers have carried out deep X-ray observations of a close-by lively galaxy generally known as NGC 5728 and its lively galactic nucleus (AGN). Outcomes of the observational marketing campaign, printed March 1 on the pre-print server arXiv, ship vital info relating to the properties of this AGN and the emission from it.
AGN are compact areas on the heart of a galaxy, extra luminous than the encompassing galaxy mild. They’re very energetic due both to the presence of a black hole or star formation exercise on the core of the galaxy.
Situated some 146 million mild years away within the constellation of Libra, NGC 5728 is an lively barred spiral galaxy with a measurement of almost 100,000 mild years and an estimated mass of about 72 billion solar lots. It’s a Seyfert galaxy of kind 1.9, with a closely obscured and sophisticated AGN powered by a supermassive black hole (SMBH) at its heart.
A workforce of astronomers led by Anna Trindade Falcao of the Harvard-Smithsonian Middle for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, determined to look at NGC 5728 with Chandra’s Superior CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) with the principle purpose of figuring out the detailed morphological and spectral properties of the prolonged X-ray emission from the galaxy’s AGN.
“We analyze the deep Chandra commentary of the CT AGN NGC 5728 to review the kpc-scale diffuse X-ray emission, each spectrally and spatially, as a operate of power,” the researchers wrote within the paper.
In outcome, the observations detected a decrease power total extent of about 13,000 light years within the course of the most important axis of NGC 5728, which can also be the course of the ionization bicone. The outcomes recommend an energy-related pattern within the measurement of the prolonged emission, with the softer emission (beneath 3 keV) being extra prolonged than the more durable emission.
The examine discovered that the diffuse emission can also be prolonged within the cross-cone course and that the transmission within the cross-cone course is about 2% of the bicone course. The info point out the presence of arduous X-rays on kiloparsec scales, suggesting a non-uniform, clumpy torus construction, which permits the radiation to flee from the circumnuclear area to bigger radii.
Moreover, the outcomes present that the ratio of detected photons within the cross-cone to the bicone area is about 16%, beneath 3 keV, and reduces to roughly 5% for the three–6 keV power vary. The astronomers assume {that a} bigger focus of dense molecular clouds within the central area may be the reason for this phenomenon since these clouds are accountable for scattering and reflecting the high-energy photons from the nucleus within the galaxy disk.
By analyzing the info, the researchers concluded that thermal parts for NGC 5728 may be defined by interstellar medium interactions, shocks, or supernova remnants/star formation from the close by star-forming ring.
Extra info:
Anna Trindade Falcao et al, Deep Chandra Observations of NGC 5728: Morphology and Spectral Properties of the Prolonged X-ray Emission, arXiv (2023). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2303.00789
Journal info:
arXiv
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