THE VARIABLE NEAR-INFRARED COUNTERPART OF THE MICROQUASAR GRS 1758–258
- Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica y Minera, EPSJ, Universidad de Jaén, Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, A3-008, 23071 Jaén (Spain)
- Departamento de Física, EPSJ, Universidad de Jaén, Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, A3-420, 23071 Jaén (Spain)
We present a new study of the microquasar system GRS 1758–258 in the near-infrared domain based on archival observations with the Hubble Space Telescope and the NICMOS camera. In addition to confirming the near-infrared counterpart pointed out by Muñoz-Arjonilla et al., we show that this object displays significant photometric variability. From its average magnitudes, we also find that GRS 1758–258 fits well within the correlation between the optical/near-infrared and X-ray luminosity known to exist for low-mass, black-hole candidate X-ray binaries in a hard state. Moreover, the spectral energy distribution built using all radio, near-infrared, and X-ray data available closest in time to the NICMOS observations can be reasonably interpreted in terms of a self-absorbed radio jet and an irradiated accretion disk model around a stellar-mass black hole. All these facts match the expected behavior of a compact binary system and strengthen our confidence in the counterpart identification.
- OSTI ID:
- 22364880
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 797, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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