M82 X-1 is an
ultra-luminous X-ray source
An ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) is an astronomical source of X-rays that is less luminous than an active galactic nucleus but is more consistently luminous than any known stellar process (over 1039 erg/s, or 1032 watts), assuming that it radiat ...
located in the galaxy
M82. It is a candidate
intermediate-mass black hole
An intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) is a class of black hole with mass in the range 102–105 solar masses: significantly more than stellar black holes but less than the 105–109 solar mass supermassive black holes. Several IMBH candidate obje ...
, with the exact mass estimate varying from around 100 to 1000.
One of the most luminous ULXs ever known, its luminosity exceeds the
Eddington limit
The Eddington luminosity, also referred to as the Eddington limit, is the maximum luminosity a body (such as a star) can achieve when there is balance between the force of radiation acting outward and the gravitational force acting inward. The stat ...
for a stellar mass object.
See also
*
M82 X-2
M82 X-2 is an X-ray pulsar located in the galaxy Messier 82, approximately 12 million light-years from Earth. It is exceptionally luminous, radiating energy equivalent to approximately ten million Suns. This object is part of a binary sys ...
References
External links
Dying Star Reveals More Evidence for New Kind of Black HoleA medium-sized black hole?
Intermediate-mass black holes
Ursa Major (constellation)
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