Using the Spectrum–RG (SRG) spacecraft, astronomers observed X-ray sources in the Galaxy’s eastern sky. The result of the observation campaign was the discovery of 14 new active galactic nuclei. The findings were presented June 6 in the journal Astronomy Letters.

An active galactic core (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that is brighter than the light of the surrounding galaxy. AGNs are very energetic due to the presence of a black hole or star formation at the center of the galaxy.

Astronomers generally divide AGN into two groups based on the characteristics of its emission lines. Type 1 AGNs show wide and narrow emission lines, while Type 2 AGNs show only narrow emission lines.

The study found 14 new AGNs relatively recently, at redshifts between 0.015 and 0.238. All are hosted in Seyfert galaxies – one as NLSy1, three as Sy1, four as Sy1.9 and six as Sy2. The X-ray luminosity of these active galactic nuclei has been measured in the range of 1-100 tredecillion erg/s typical for AGN in the modern era.

The astronomers generated broadband (0.2–12 keV) X-ray spectra and were able to obtain black hole masses and bolometric luminosities for the four newly discovered AGNs. These values ​​were found to be 12–260 million solar masses and 170–1800 tredecillion erg/s, respectively. They also found that the four AGNs had an intrinsic absorption of over 1022 cm3.^-2.

In summary, the paper’s authors noted how important their discovery is to current AGN search. They hope to make a large sample of these objects based on their hard X-ray emissions.

“The result will help to obtain a large (approximately 2,000 objects), statistically complete AGN sample selected for its emissions in the hard X-ray range of 4–12 keV upon completion of the eight planned sky surveys.” The researchers came to the conclusion. Source