A Race Round a Black Hole - Additional Graphs and Information
01.10.05
This page provides more scientific graphs and explanations of the information presented in the initial webpage.
Image above: A plot of the peak X-ray energy from each hotspot versus time, for three distinct hotspots on the accretion disk of Markarian 766. Each spot has a different color code to make the three curves easy to separate visually. The time axis represents approximately 27 hours of X-ray data. Click on image to enlarge. Credit: Jane Turner & Lance Miller
Image above: An artists illustration showing the three different disk inclinations we use to explain how the height of the curves we measure can be used to learn about the black hole system. The top panel shows a face-on disk, the center panel shows an inclination of 25 degrees, as we believe to be the case for Markarian 766, and the bottom panel shows a disk viewed almost edge-on. Credit: Dana Berry, SkyWorks Digital
Image above: Three model curves, showing how the curve height will change for the same hotspot system viewed differently. A face-on disk (red line) shows no Doppler effect; a slightly inclined disk shows a small Doppler effect (green line) and an edge-on disk shows a large Doppler effect (blue line). Click on image to enlarge. Credit: Lance Miller
Image above: Three model curves, showing how the period measured (or ‘stretch’) will look different for different central black hole mass. A 1 million solar mass black hole produces the red line, a 10 million solar mass black hole results in the green line, and a 100 million solar mass hole gives us the blue line. So the measured ‘stretch’ of the curve can tell us the black hole mass. Click on image to enlarge. Credit: Lance Miller
