GRO J0422+32

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GRO J0422+32[1] is an X-ray nova and black hole candidate that was discovered by the BATSE instrument on the CGRO satellite on 5 August 1992.[2][3] During outburst, it was observed to be stronger than the Crab Nebula gamma-ray source out to photon energies of about 500 keV.[4]

The mass of the black hole in GRO J0422+32 falls in the range 3.66 to 4.97 solar masses.[5] This is the smallest yet found for any black hole, and near the theoretical upper mass limit (~2.7 solar masses) for a neutron star. Further analysis in 2012 calculated a mass of 2.1 solar masses, which raises questions as to what the object actually is.[6]

Position (J2000) is RA 04 h 21 m 42.77 s +32 deg 54' 26.7".[7][8]

It is identified with an M1V variable star, V518 Per,[9] in the constellation Perseus, with magnitudes 13.5 in the B spectral band, and 13.2 in V.

References

  1. SIMBAD
  2. Harmon, A. et al. (1992) IAUC 5584
  3. Paciesas, W. et al. (1992), IAUC 5594
  4. Ling, J. C. and Wm. A. Wheaton,"BATSE Soft γ-Ray Observations of GROJ0422+32", Ap. J., 584, 399 (2003)
  5. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003ApJ...599.1254G
  6. Kreidberg, Laura; Bailyn, Charles D.; Farr, Will M.; Kalogera, Vicky (2012). "Mass Measurements of Black Holes in X-ray Transients: is There a Mass Gap?". The Astrophysical Journal 757 (36): 17pp. Bibcode:2012ApJ...757...36K. 
  7. McCroskey et al., IAUC 5594, 1992
  8. Castro-Tirado, A. J. et al. (1993), Astron.&Astrophys, "Discovery of the optical counterpart of the soft X-ray transient GRO J0422+32", vol. 276, no2, pp. L37-L40
  9. General Catalogue of Variable Stars, 3rd ed. (1971) Moscow


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