The complex iron line of NGC 5506

¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy
² XMM-Newton SOC, VILSPA-ESA, Apartado 50727, 28080 Madrid, Spain
³ Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Via dell'Osservatorio, 00044 Monteporzio Catone, Italy
⁴ Harvard-Smithsonian Center of Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge MA 02138, USA
⁵ Istituto Tecnologie e Studio Radiazioni Extraterrestri, CNR, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
⁶ Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale, C.N.R., Via Fosso del Cavaliere, 00133 Roma, Italy

Corresponding author: G. Matt, matt@fis.uniroma3.it

Received: 31 July 2001
Accepted: 29 August 2001

Abstract

The bright Narrow Emission Line Galaxy, NGC 5506, has been observed simultaneously by XMM-Newton and BeppoSAX. The iron line is complex, with at least two components: one narrow and corresponding to neutral iron, the second one broad and corresponding to ionized iron. The latter line is equally well fitted by a truly broad line or by a blend of He-and H-like narrow lines. The bulk of the Compton reflection continuum originates in neutral matter, and is therefore associated with the narrow line: they are most likely emitted in distant matter. The origin of the ionized line(s) is less certain, but the solution in terms of a blend of narrow lines from photoionized matter seems to be preferable to emission from an ionized, relativistic accretion disc.