Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 819, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.3847/0004-637X/819/2/151
Keywords
black hole physics; circumstellar matter; galaxies: individual (SDSS J095209.56+214313.3); galaxies: nuclei; supernovae: general; ultraviolet: galaxies
Categories
Funding
- Gaia Research for European Astronomy Training (GREAT-ITN) Marie Curie network - European Union [264895]
- NASA Swift grant [NNX15AR46G]
- NSF CAREER grant [1454816]
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration Near Earth Object Observations Program [FA8721-05-C-0002]
- European Research Council under the European Community [227224]
- Fund for Scientific Research of Flanders (FWO) [G.0410.09]
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NNG05GF22G]
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Japanese Monbukagakusho
- Max Planck Society
- Higher Education Funding Council for England
- American Museum of Natural History
- Astrophysical Institute Potsdam
- University of Basel
- University of Cambridge
- Case Western Reserve University
- University of Chicago
- Drexel University
- Fermilab
- Institute for Advanced Study
- Japan Participation Group
- Johns Hopkins University
- Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics
- Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
- Korean Scientist Group
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMOST)
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA)
- Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA)
- New Mexico State University
- Ohio State University
- University of Pittsburgh
- University of Portsmouth
- Princeton University
- United States Naval Observatory
- University of Washington
- U.S. National Science Foundation [AST-0909182]
- NASA [802076, NNX15AR46G] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences [1454816] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Extreme coronal-line emitter (ECLE) SDSS J095209.56+214313.3, known by its strong, fading, high-ionization lines, has been a long-standing candidate for a tidal disruption event;. however, a supernova (SN). origin has not yet been ruled out. Here we add several new pieces of information to the puzzle of the nature of the transient that powered its variable coronal lines: (1) an optical light curve from the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) survey that serendipitously catches the optical flare, and (2) late-time observations of the host galaxy with the Swift Ultraviolet and Optical Telescope (UVOT) and X-ray telescope (XRT) and the ground-based Mercator telescope. The well-sampled, similar to 10 yr long, unfiltered LINEAR light curve constrains the onset of the flare to a precision of +/- 5 days and enables us to place a lower limit on the peak optical magnitude. Difference imaging allows us to estimate the location of the flare in proximity of the host galaxy core. Comparison of the GALEX data (early 2006) with the recently acquired Swift UVOT (2015 June) and Mercator observations (2015 April) demonstrates. a decrease in the UV flux over a similar to 10 yr period, confirming that the flare was UV-bright. The long-lived UV-bright emission, detected 1.8 rest-frame years after the start of the flare, strongly disfavors an SN origin. These new data allow us to conclude that the flare was indeed powered by the tidal disruption of a star by a supermassive black hole and that tidal disruption events are in fact capable of powering the enigmatic class of ECLEs.
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