The ULX NGC 1313 X-2 : an optical study revealing an interesting behavior

TL;DR

This study investigates the optical properties and environment of the ultraluminous X-ray source NGC 1313 X-2, highlighting changes over time and ongoing efforts to detect variability and radial velocity shifts.

Contribution

It provides new optical observations of NGC 1313 X-2, revealing environmental characteristics and temporal changes in its optical counterpart, and outlines a program to study its variability.

Findings

Differences observed in the optical counterpart between two epochs.

Characterization of the stellar environment around NGC 1313 X-2.

Ongoing search for radial velocity variations and photometric variability.

Abstract

We present a summary of our ongoing efforts to study one of the brightest ultraluminous X-ray source, NGC 1313 X-2. Despite a large coverage in the X-rays, much of the information we have about the source and its environment comes from optical wavelenghts. Here, we report on the properties of the stellar environment, and the differences in the optical counterpart between our two observing epochs (2003--2004 and 2007--2008). We summarize our ongoing program designed to look for radial velocity variations in the optical spectra and for photometric variability.