1. Observation of Cen A by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer
- Author
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Rothschild, R. E., Band, D. L., Blanco, P. R., Gruber, D. E., Heindl, W. A., MacDonald, D. R., Marsden, D. C., Jahoda, K., Pierce, D., Madejski, G., Elvis, M., Schwartz, D. A., Remillard, R., Zdziarski, A. A., Done, C., and Svensson, R.
- Subjects
Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,Astrophysics (astro-ph) ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics - Abstract
The Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer made a short (10 ks) observation of the radio galaxy Centaurus A on 14 August 1996. Analysis of the combined 2.5-240 keV spectrum has revealed a heavily absorbed(NH=9.42+/-0.24 e22 cm-2) primary power law (index=1.86+/-0.015) and an iron line due to fluorescence of cold matter (EW=162+/-25 eV). Flux from either a jet, primary flux scattered into the line of sight, or primary flux seen through a partial absorber was not required. The iron line width is unresolved at the 95% confidence level (sigma < 0.54 keV). No significant variability in the iron line flux is seen from measurements over the last two decades, while the overall continuum flux varied by more than a factor of four, which implies that the line emission region is distant from that of the primary emission. While radio-quiet Seyfert galaxies exhibit spectral components attributable to Compton reflection from cold matter, Cen A reveals no such component (exposed solid angle ratio < 0.09). This supports unified models of active galaxies that have little difference between Seyfert 2 and low luminosity radio galaxies, 24 pages, 3 figures, accepted to The Astrophysical Journal
- Published
- 1998
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