SPATIALLY RESOLVED SPECTROSCOPY OF THE GLOBULAR CLUSTER RZ 2109 AND THE NATURE OF ITS BLACK HOLE
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 (United States)
- Eureka Scientific, Inc., 2452 Delmer Street, Suite 100 Oakland, CA 94602 (United States)
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ (United Kingdom)
- Department of Astronomy, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405 (United States)
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
We present optical Hubble Space Telescope/Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (HST/STIS) spectroscopy of RZ 2109, a globular cluster (GC) in the elliptical galaxy NGC 4472. This GC is notable for hosting an ultraluminous X-ray source as well as associated strong and broad [O III] {lambda}{lambda}4959, 5007 emission. We show that the HST/STIS spectroscopy spatially resolves the [O III] emission in RZ 2109. While we are unable to make a precise determination of the morphology of the emission-line nebula, the best-fitting models all require that the [O III] {lambda}5007 emission has a half-light radius in the range 3-7 pc. The extended nature of the [O III] {lambda}5007 emission is inconsistent with published models that invoke an intermediate-mass black hole origin. It is also inconsistent with the ionization of ejecta from a nova in the cluster. The spatial scale of the nebula could be produced via the photoionization of a strong wind driven from a stellar mass black hole accreting at roughly its Eddington rate.
- OSTI ID:
- 22086361
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 759, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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