Bibcode
DOI
Jiménez-Bailón, E.; Santos-Lleó, M.; Mas-Hesse, J. M.; Guainazzi, M.; Colina, L.; Cerviño, M.; González Delgado, Rosa M.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 593, Issue 1, pp. 127-141.
Advertised on:
8
2003
Journal
Citations
34
Refereed citations
31
Description
We present evidence of the coexistence of either an AGN or an
ultraluminous X-ray source, together with a young superstellar cluster,
in the central 3 pc of NGC 4303. The galaxy contains a low-luminosity
AGN and hosts a number of starburst regions in a circumnuclear spiral,
as well as in the nucleus itself. A high spatial resolution Chandra
image of this source reveals that the soft X-ray emission traces the
ultraviolet nuclear spiral down to a core, which is unresolved in both
soft and hard X-rays. The astrometry of the X-ray core coincides with
the UV core within the Chandra positioning accuracy. The total X-ray
luminosity of the core, ~1.5×1039 ergs s-1,
is similar to that from some LINERs or from the weakest Seyfert galaxies
detected so far. The soft X-rays in both the core and the extended
structure surrounding it can be well reproduced by evolutionary
synthesis models (which include the emission expected from single stars,
the hot diffuse gas, supernova remnants, and binary systems), consistent
with the properties of the young stellar clusters identified in the UV.
The hard X-ray tail detected in the core spectrum, however, most likely
requires the presence of an additional source. This additional source
could be either a weak active nucleus black hole or an ultraluminous
X-ray object. The implications of these results are discussed.