NGC4945
NGC 4945 is the brightest Seyfert 2 in hard X-rays, and the best example of only a few Compton-thick AGN known to vary strongly >10 keV. The strong hard X-ray variability implies the intrinsic flux is not smeared out by the obscurer, requiring an atypically low torus covering factor. The cause remains unknown, but may be related to outflows depleting the sub-pc reflecting gas. Chandra has also resolved part of the reflector directly on extended scales of ~30pc rather than a classical sub-pc torus. These ill-understood reflector properties make NGC 4945 an ideal target for XRISM. We propose a 200ks observation to constrain the location, density and clumpiness of the obscurer with Resolve, and understand implications for the wider population from this prototype variable Compton-thick AGN.
obsid = 201094010 / Unique Observation/Sequence Number
object = NGC4945 / Object name
pi_name = BOORMAN PETER / Proposal Principal Investigator Name
ra = 196.366735614155 / Right Ascension (Pointing Position) (deg)
dec = -49.4686251618704 / Declination (Pointing Position) (deg)
roll_angle = 277.709655080787 / Roll Angle (deg)
start_time = 2025-06-23T02:05:04 / Start Time of the Observation
stop_time = 2025-06-28T03:00:04 / Stop Time of the Observation
exposure = 291188.29066 / Effective Total Observation Exposure (s)
public_date= 2026-07-17 / Public Date