Ultraluminous X-ray sources are extremely bright X-ray sources in external galaxies that have generated great interest because they may be intermediate mass black holes. I review three recent observational results on ULXs. 1) A survey of nearby galaxies using XMM-Newton which has led to the discovery of three distinct classes of ULXs with differing spectral shapes. 2) HST mapping of the photoionization nebula surrounding Holmberg II X-1 which indicates that the ULX has a true luminosity close to the value inferred assuming isotropic X-ray emission and is not significantly beamed. 3) Recent RXTE, Chandra, and VLA observations of the ULX in M82.
Tuesday, October 11th
Seminar is to be held at 4:00 PM in the conference room
on the second floor of Dearborn Observatory
Refreshments will be served at 3:30
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