Bibcode
Grisé, F.; Kaaret, P.; Feng, H.; Kajava, J. J. E.; Farrell, S. A.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 724, Issue 2, pp. L148-L152 (2010).
Advertised on:
12
2010
Citations
35
Refereed citations
32
Description
The ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) Holmberg II X-1 has been observed
over four months in 2009/2010 by the Swift observatory. The source
luminosity varied by a factor of up to 14, reaching a maximum 0.3-10 keV
luminosity of ~3.0 × 1040 erg s-1. The
spectral properties do not vary much over these four months, with only a
slight monotonic increase of the hardness ratio with the count rate.
This means that the erratic flaring activity of the source is not
associated with spectral changes, as seen in other ULXs. Conversely,
comparison with data obtained by Swift in 2006 shows a completely
different picture: while at a luminosity also seen in the 2009/2010
data, the source appears with a hard spectrum. Thus, it appears that, as
in Galactic black hole binaries, spectral states in this ULX are not
determined only by the X-ray luminosity.