Rapid Compton-thick/Compton-thin Transitions in the Seyfert 2 Galaxy NGC 1365 | Zendy

G. Risaliti | Zendy; M. Elvis | Zendy; G. Fabbiano | Zendy; A. Baldi | Zendy; A. Zezas | Zendy

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Rapid Compton-thick/Compton-thin Transitions in the Seyfert 2 Galaxy NGC 1365

Author(s) -

G. Risaliti,

M. Elvis,

G. Fabbiano,

A. Baldi,

A. Zezas

Publication year - 2005

Publication title -

the astrophysical journal

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 2.376

H-Index - 489

eISSN - 1538-4357

pISSN - 0004-637X

DOI - 10.1086/430252

Subject(s) - physics , astrophysics , galaxy , flux (metallurgy) , reflection (computer programming) , line of sight , astronomy , active galactic nucleus , materials science , computer science , metallurgy , programming language

We present multiple Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of the type 1.8Seyfert Galaxy NGC 1365, which shows the most dramatic X-ray spectral changesobserved so far in an AGN: the source switched from reflection dominated totransmission dominated and back in just 6 weeks. During this time the softthermal component, arising from a ~1 kpc region around the center, remainedconstant. The reflection component is constant at all timescales, and its highflux relative to the primary component implies the presence of thick gascovering a large fraction of the solid angle. The presence of this gas, and thefast variability time scale, suggest that the Compton-thick to Compton thinchange is due to variation in the line-of-sight absorber, rather than toextreme intrinsic emission variability. We discuss a structure of thecircumnuclear absorber/reflector which can explain the observed X-ray spectraland temporal properties.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

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