Identification of a Helium Donor Star in NGC 247 ULX-1

Abstract

With Very Large Telescope Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) observations, we detected highly variable helium emission lines from the optical counterpart of the supersoft ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) NGC 247 ULX-1. No Balmer lines can be seen in the source spectrum. This is the first evidence for the presence of a helium donor star in ULXs, consistent with a prediction that helium donor stars may be common in ULXs. The helium lines with an FWHM of about 200 km s−1 are likely produced on the outer accretion disk. Their strong variation implies that the central X-ray source can be significantly obscured to the outer disk. Also, a ring or a double-ring structure is revealed in the MUSE image. It is unknown whether or not it is related to the progenitor of the ULX binary.