Skip to content

Oxygen and Iron Abundances in Nearby Galaxies Using Ultraluminous X-ray Sources

Lisa M. Winter, Richard F. Mushotzky, Christopher S. Reynolds

astro-pharXiv:astro-ph/0511493

Abstract

We determined oxygen and iron abundances of the interstellar medium (ISM) using K-shell (O) and L-shell (Fe) X-ray photo-ionization edges towards Ultra luminous X-ray sources (ULXs). We determine the hydrogen column densities (nH) towards the ULXs from XMM-Newton archival spectra of 14 ULX sources. We compare our X-ray values with those obtained from radio HI observations for 8 of the sources. The X-ray model nH values are in good agreement with the HI nH values, implying that the hydrogen absorption towards the ULX is not local to the source, with the exception of M81 X-1. Oxygen abundances and iron abundances are roughly solar for the host galaxies.

Create a lesson