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NuSTAR catches the unveiling nucleus of NGC 1068

Marinucci, A.; Bianchi, S.; Matt, G.; Alexander, D.M.; Baloković, M.; Bauer, F.E.; Brandt, W.N.; Gandhi, P.; Guainazzi, M.; Harrison, F.A.; Iwasawa, K.; Koss, M.; Madsen, K.K.; Nicastro, F.; Puccetti, S.; Ricci, C.; Stern, D.; Walton, D.J.

NuSTAR catches the unveiling nucleus of NGC 1068 Thumbnail


Authors

A. Marinucci

S. Bianchi

G. Matt

M. Baloković

F.E. Bauer

W.N. Brandt

P. Gandhi

M. Guainazzi

F.A. Harrison

K. Iwasawa

M. Koss

K.K. Madsen

F. Nicastro

S. Puccetti

C. Ricci

D. Stern

D.J. Walton



Abstract

We present a NuSTAR and XMM–Newton monitoring campaign in 2014/2015 of the Compton-thick Seyfert 2 galaxy, NGC 1068. During the 2014 August observation, we detect with NuSTAR a flux excess above 20 keV (32 ± 6 per cent) with respect to the 2012 December observation and to a later observation performed in 2015 February. We do not detect any spectral variation below 10 keV in the XMM–Newton data. The transient excess can be explained by a temporary decrease of the column density of the obscuring material along the line of sight (from NH ≃ 1025 cm−2 to NH = 6.7 ± 1.0 × 1024 cm−2), which allows us for the first time to unveil the direct nuclear radiation of the buried active galactic nucleus in NGC 1068 and to infer an intrinsic 2–10 keV luminosity LX=7+7−4×1043X=7−4+7×1043 erg s−1.

Citation

Marinucci, A., Bianchi, S., Matt, G., Alexander, D., Baloković, M., Bauer, F., …Walton, D. (2016). NuSTAR catches the unveiling nucleus of NGC 1068. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 456(1), L94-L98. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slv178

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 10, 2015
Online Publication Date Dec 17, 2015
Publication Date Feb 11, 2016
Deposit Date May 31, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Electronic ISSN 1745-3933
Publisher Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 456
Issue 1
Pages L94-L98
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slv178
Related Public URLs http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016MNRAS.456L..94M

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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters ©: 2015 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.





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