A Chandra/HETGS Census of X-ray Variability From Sgr A* During 2012

Understand

We present the first systematic analysis of the X-ray variability of Sgr A* during the Chandra X-ray Observatory's 2012 Sgr A* X-ray Visionary Project (XVP).

• With 38 High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (HETGS) observations spaced an average of 7 days apart, this unprecedented campaign enables detailed study of the X-ray emission from this supermassive black hole at high spatial, spectral and timing resolution.
• In 3 Ms of observations, we detect 39 X-ray flares from Sgr A*, lasting from a few hundred seconds to approximately 8 ks, and ranging in 2-10 keV luminosity from ~1e34 erg/s to 2e35 erg/s.
• Despite tentative evidence for a gap in the distribution of flare peak count rates, there is no evidence for X-ray color differences between faint and bright flares.