Super-Eddington accretion periods are expected to be extremely important toexplain the fast growth of the first supermassive black holes. However,among allaccretion modes, this phase is still the least understood one,and it is stilllargely debated what are the physical properties of the accretion flow and ofthe X-ray source at very high accretion rates. We propose here a systematicbroad-band X-ray study of super-Eddington AGN at z<0.1 by simultaneouslyobserving three sources with NuSTAR and XMM.These three AGN have the highestEddington ratios in the SEAMBHs sample, which contains exclusively objects withblack hole masses estimated from reverberation mapping, making the Eddingtonratio estimates extremely reliable.
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2020-02-17T17:57:51Z/2020-04-11T15:55:57Z
Version
18.02_20200221_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, Prof Claudio Ricci, 2021, 'The 1st systematic XR Study of extreme accretion on supermassive BH with NU+XM', 18.02_20200221_1200, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.57780/esa-vc2ettc
