Eclipsing the X-Ray Emitting Region in the Active Galaxy NGC 6814

Abstract We report the detection of a rapid occultation event in the nearby Seyfert galaxy NGC 6814, simultaneously captured in a transient light curve and spectral variability. The intensity and hardness ratio curves capture distinct ingress and egress periods that are symmetric in duration. Indepe...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astrophysical journal. Letters 2021-02, Vol.908 (2), p.L33
Main Authors: Gallo, Luigi C., Gonzalez, Adam G., Miller, Jon M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accretion
Active galaxies
Astrophysical black holes
Black holes
Continuum modeling
Eclipses
Egress
Event horizon
Galaxies
Light curve
Luminous intensity
Occultation
Partial eclipses
Seyfert galaxies
Supermassive black holes
X ray sources
X-ray active galactic nuclei
X-ray astronomy
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Abstract We report the detection of a rapid occultation event in the nearby Seyfert galaxy NGC 6814, simultaneously captured in a transient light curve and spectral variability. The intensity and hardness ratio curves capture distinct ingress and egress periods that are symmetric in duration. Independent of the selected continuum model, the changes can be simply described by varying the fraction of the central engine that is covered by transiting obscuring gas. Together, the spectral and timing analyses self-consistently reveal the properties of the obscuring gas, its location to be in the broad-line region, and the size of the X-ray source to be ∼ 25 r g . Our results demonstrate that obscuration close to massive black holes can shape their appearance, and can be harnessed to measure the active region that surrounds the event horizon.
ISSN:2041-8205
2041-8213
DOI:10.3847/2041-8213/abdcb5