Abstract
SS433 has attracted much attention following the interpretation of its optical spectrum by Margon et al.1 and Liebert et al.2. A possible explanation of the Doppler-shifted Balmer emission lines has been proposed by Rees and Fabian3 and Abell and Margon4 in terms of two opposed jets that are ejected from the central source at speeds approaching 0.25c and may extend for ∼50 AU (∼7×1014 cm). Previous work has shown SS433 to be variable at radio wavelengths5, X rays6, IR7,8 and also in the visible9,10. We report here simultaneous observations at IR and visual wavelengths which show that SS433 has an IR excess. We attribute this to a region of gas that radiates by free–free and free–bound emission processes with a total emission measure of the order of 1061 cm−3.
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Giles, A., King, A., Cooke, B. et al. Infrared observations of SS433. Nature 281, 282–283 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/281282a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/281282a0
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