SUMMARY OF SEQUENCE NUMBER 700127

SUMMARY OF SEQUENCE NUMBER 700127

Title: LIFTING THE SHROUD AROUND BROAD ABSORPTION LINE QSOS: AN AXAF SURVEY

Observer: GREEN

Subject Category: Active Galaxies and Quasars

Seq: 700127 ObsId: 00822

Long-term Plan bin: no LTS bin

ABSTRACT

We propose a short-exposure AXAF survey of a sample of 16 bright Broad Absorption Line (BAL) QSOs. BALs are caused by outflows from the nucleus with velocities reaching 0.2c. Recent ROSAT studies imply that the soft X-ray continuum of BALQSOs is either a) strongly absorbed by highly ionized material, or b) intrinsically underluminous. Since about 10% of QSOs show BALs, the former interpretation supports the hypothesis that most or possibly all QSOs contain BAL-type outflows, with a 10% covering factor. BALQSOs may thus provide a unique probe of cloud conditions near the nucleus of most QSOs. The latter alternative means that BALQSOs are an intrinsically different type of quasar. We propose to settle this question finally, with a judicious application of AXAF's unique capabilities.

TARGET SUMMARY

TARGET NAME RADEC TIME SI GRAT TYPE TC ROLL PRE PHASE MULTI PRI
SBSG 1542+541
235.997083
53.984333
2.500000
ACIS-S
NONE
GO
no
no
no
no
no
5

IMAGES

(NOTE: RASS images currently only available for targets LTS scheduled on or after Apr-09-2000)

Roll/Visibility

PARAMETERS

Obscat Parameters