Thanks to its high soft X-ray sensitivity, XMM-Newton has been used successfullyto constrain the long-term evolution and thus the nature of many candidate tidaldisruption events. Such events occur when stars approach a supermassive blackhole (SMBH) and are tidally disrupted and subsequently accreted, providing aunique way to find and study inactive SMBHs. Only about a dozen of suchcandidates have been reported. Our recently discovered candidate has soft X-rayspectra of unprecedented quality near the flare peak and provides many newdetails such as spectral evolution and fast variability of such events near theflare peak. We propose an XMM-Newton follow-up observation of this source tomeasure its decay curve and spectral evolution to confirm its nature.
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2013-03-03T10:28:57Z/2013-03-03T23:05:14Z
Version
17.56_20190403_1200
Mission Description
The European Space Agencys (ESA) X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) was launched by an Ariane 504 on December 10th 1999. XMM-Newton is ESAs second cornerstone of the Horizon 2000 Science Programme. It carries 3 high throughput X-ray telescopes with an unprecedented effective area, and an optical monitor, the first flown on a X-ray observatory. The large collecting area and ability to make long uninterrupted exposures provide highly sensitive observations. Since Earths atmosphere blocks out all X-rays, only a telescope in space can detect and study celestial X-ray sources. The XMM-Newton mission is helping scientists to solve a number of cosmic mysteries, ranging from the enigmatic black holes to the origins of the Universe itself. Observing time on XMM-Newton is being made available to the scientific community, applying for observational periods on a competitive basis.
European Space Agency, Dr Dacheng Lin, 2014, 'Long-term Evolution of A New Tidal Disruption Event Candidate', 17.56_20190403_1200, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-0etmbxg
