by Bill Blair and Frank Winkler
Constraining the Optical
Counterpart of a New
ULX in M83
Using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph at Gemini South, an
international team detected the optical counterpart to an ultraluminous
X-ray source first detected by Chandra in late 2010. The authors, using Gemini
in classical mode, received permission to re-prioritize their existing Gemini
supernova remnant observations of M83. The results, which turned out to be
a successful marriage of opportunity and serendipity, are presented here.
Figure 1.
M83 as imaged
in April 2009 with
the Magellan 6.5m
telescope and
IMACS instrument.
Red is Halpha, green
is [O III] 5007, and
blue is B band.
13
Using multi-wavelength observations,
we, along with several collaborators, are
conducting an ongoing study of the cycle
of stellar birth, evolution, and death to
better understand how the interplay of
these processes affects the evolution of
entire galaxies. A particularly fruitful element of this study entails discovering and
characterizing the supernova remnant
populations in nearby galaxies. Recently,
our team has concentrated on the iconic,
face-on spiral galaxy M83 in the constellation Hydra (see Figure 1). Fortunately,
the timing of this decision to study M83
was exquisite, as it led to the discovery of
a most unusual optical counterpart to a bright X-ray transient source, the brightest X-ray point
event in M83 by far. The nature of this source posed a puzzle that we are beginning to under-
GeminiFocus
June2012