Publications by authors named "Simon F Portegies Zwart"
Article Synopsis
- Supernova SN 2006gy in the galaxy NGC 1260 is the brightest supernova ever recorded, suggesting its progenitor was an extremely massive star (>100 solar masses).
- However, the presence of hydrogen in the supernova's spectrum challenges the idea that it came from a single massive star, as those are expected to lose their hydrogen before exploding.
- Instead, the researchers propose that SN 2006gy could be the result of two massive stars merging, and predict that a dense cluster of massive stars will become visible at the explosion site once the supernova fades.
A luminous X-ray source is associated with MGG 11--a cluster of young stars approximately 200 pc from the centre of the starburst galaxy M 82 (refs 1, 2). The properties of this source are best explained by invoking a black hole with a mass of at least 350 solar masses (350 M(o)), which is intermediate between stellar-mass and supermassive black holes. A nearby but somewhat more massive cluster (MGG 9) shows no evidence of such an intermediate-mass black hole, raising the issue of just what physical characteristics of the clusters can account for this difference.
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