MONITORING OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI .5. THE SEYFERT-1 GALAXY MARKARIAN-279

Citation
Gm. Stirpe et al., MONITORING OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI .5. THE SEYFERT-1 GALAXY MARKARIAN-279, Astronomy and astrophysics, 285(3), 1994, pp. 857-867
Citations number
35
Categorie Soggetti
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Journal title
ISSN journal
00046361
Volume
285
Issue
3
Year of publication
1994
Pages
857 - 867
Database
ISI
SICI code
0004-6361(1994)285:3<857:MOAGN.>2.0.ZU;2-J
Abstract
We report on the Lovers of Active Galaxies' (LAG) monitoring of the Se yfert 1 galaxy Markarian 279 from January to June 1990. The source, wh ich was in a very bright state, gradually weakened after the first mon th of monitoring: the Halpha and Hbeta flux decreased by 20% and 35% r espectively, and the continuum under Halpha by 30%. The luminosity-wei ghted radius of the broad line region (BLR), as derived from the cross -correlation function, is of the order of 10 light days. This result i s very uncertain because the features in the light curves are very sha llow, but it is unlikely that the radius of the BLR is more than 1 lig ht month. The profile variations of Halpha confirm that the prevailing motions are not radial. The data of the present campaign and those ob tained in previous years, when the source was in a much weaker state, show that the red asymmetry of the Balmer lines correlates positively with the broad line flux. This new effect is briefly discussed.