LMC-X3

Right ascension:    5:38:39.9   Magnitude:  16.6
    Declination:  -64:06:37

Image:  SWP 45125
 Date:  1992 Jul 13 3:50 UT

Exposure duration:  420 min

LMC X-3 is believed to be a binary system consisting of a black hole drawing material from an orbiting 8 solar mass main-sequence star. The material is superheated as it is compressed into an accretion disk, producing X-rays about 10,000 times stronger than the Sun. The continuum visible here arises from the blue companion. Faint emission lines from N V, C IV, and He II are produced by the accretion disk surrounding the black-hole candidate. Although the disk is very bright in the X-ray portion of the spectrum, only in the ultraviolet can both it and the blue star be observed.

Last updated: 08 April 1998
Obtained from IUE project at Goddard Space Flight Center