James R. Webb et al. 2000 The Astronomical Journal 120 41 doi:10.1086/301432
The 1997 Outburst of AO 0235+164: Evidence for a Microlensing Event?
FREE ISSUEJames R. Webb1, Emily Howard1, Erika Benítez1,2, Tom Balonek3, Elizabeth McGrath3, Chris Shrader4,5, Ian Robson6 and Pamela Jenkins7
Show affiliationsWe present multiwavelength observations of AO 0235+164 made during a 5 mag outburst in 1997. Detection of the outburst at the observatory of the South Eastern Association for Research in Astronomy prompted a concerted effort by several observatories to monitor the source in the R band. We present V-, R-, and I-band photometry, as well as contemporaneous 850 μm and X-ray measurements. We also use radio measurements from the University of Michigan's World Wide Web site in our analysis. We find that the source varies nearly simultaneously over 6 decades in frequency during this outburst and examine the possibility that the outburst was a result of a microlensing event. The duration of the outburst was on the order of 800 days, and the maximum luminosity was approximately 9.86 × 1047 ergs s-1 (assuming no relativistic beaming). We also analyze the long-term optical light curve and find that, although there is still no evidence for periodicity, the variations are interesting: the timescales between pairs of outbursts are remarkably similar. We suggest that the multifrequency behavior of the 1997 outburst is consistent with microlensing scenarios, while observations of previous outbursts suggest they were not consistent with gravitational microlensing.
- Keywords
galaxies: active; gravitational lensing; quasars: individual (AO 0235+164)
- Dates
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Issue 1 (2000 July)
Received 2000 March 3, accepted for publication 2000 March 28
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The 1997 Outburst of AO 0235+164: Evidence for a Microlensing Event?
James R. Webb et al. 2000 The Astronomical Journal 120 41
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