2004/11/12 by Chiho Matsumoto, C. Matsumoto, A. Nava +8
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/425566
published as Astrophys.J. 617 (2004) 930-938 · 28 pages, including 7 figures and 4 tables; accepted for publication in the ApJ
arxiv created 2004/11/12 · openalex publication_date 2004/12/18 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We present results from a half-day observation by XMM-Newton of the nucleus of the nearby Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 6300. The X-ray spectrum of the nucleus consists of a heavily absorbed hard component dominating the 3-10 keV band and a soft component seen in the 0.2-2 keV band. In the hard band, the spectrum is well fitted by a power-law model with photon index of 1.83 ± 0.08 attenuated by a Compton-thin absorber ( N H ≃ 2.2 × 10 23 cm -2 ). A narrow iron line is detected at 6.43 keV with an equivalent width of ~150 eV; the line velocity width is marginally resolved to be σ ~ 60 eV. The soft emission can be modeled as a power law and may be emission scattered by surrounding plasma. Rapid and high-amplitude variability is observed in the hard X-ray band, whereas both the iron line and the soft emission show no significant variability. It is suggested that the nucleus has experienced an overall long-term trend of decreasing hard X-ray intensity on a timescale of years. We discuss the origins of the spectral components.