EDP Sciences Journals List
Advanced Search
Subscriber Authentication Point
Home All issues Volume 437/3 Article
Free access article

Issue A&A
Volume 437, Number 3, July III 2005
Page(s) 899 - 904
Section Extragalactic astronomy
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20053060



A&A 437, 899-904 (2005)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20053060

Discovery of multiple ultra-luminous X-ray sources in the galaxy KUG 0214-057

M. G. Watson1, T. P. Roberts1, M. Akiyama2 and Y. Ueda3

1  Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
    e-mail: mgw@star.le.ac.uk
2  Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 650 North A'ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720, USA
3  Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229-8510, Japan

(Received 21 December 2004 / Accepted 6 April 2005 )

Abstract
We report the serendipitous discovery of several unresolved X-ray sources lying in the prominent spiral arms of the galaxy KUG 0214-057 in XMM-Newton observations. The location of these X-ray sources strongly suggests that at least three, and possibly four, of these may be physically related to the galaxy. The luminosity of each of these sources at the distance of KUG 0214-057 is > $5 \times 10^{39}~\rm erg\,s^{-1}$ (0.3-10 keV), making each a strong candidate ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX). Using the ULXs objects as a metric implies that this relatively low-mass galaxy may be experiencing rather intense starburst activity. The serendipitous discovery of these ULXs objects suggests that such objects are not a negligible component of the overall extragalactic X-ray source population.


Key words: X-rays: galaxies -- galaxies: starburst

SIMBAD Objects



© ESO 2005


What is OpenURL?

The OpenURL standard is a protocol for transmission of metadata describing the resource that you wish to access. An OpenURL link contains article metadata and directs it to the OpenURL server of your choice. The OpenURL server can provide access to the resource and also offer complementary services (specific search engine, export of references...). The OpenURL link can be generated by different means.
  • If your librarian has set up your subscription with an OpenURL resolver, OpenURL links appear automatically on the abstract pages.
  • You can define your own OpenURL resolver with your EDPS Account. In this case your choice will be given priority over that of your library.
  • You can use an add-on for your browser (Firefox or I.E.) to display OpenURL links on a page (see http://www.openly.com/openurlref/). You should disable this module if you wish to use the OpenURL server that you or your library have defined.