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We present the X-ray spectral and timing analysis of the transient black hole X-ray binary 4U 1630–47, observed with the AstroSat, Chandra, and MAXI space missions during its soft X-ray outburst in 2016. The outburst, from the rising phase until the peak, is detected neither in hard X-rays (15–50 keV) by the Swift/BAT nor in radio. Such nondetection, along with the source behavior in the hardness–intensity and color–color diagrams obtained using MAXI data, confirms that both Chandra and AstroSat observations were performed during the HS spectral state. The High Energy Grating (HEG) spectrum from the Chandra High-Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer shows two strong, moderately blueshifted absorption lines at keV and keV, which are produced by Fe xxv and Fe xxvi in a low-velocity ionized disk wind. The corresponding outflow velocity is determined to be 366 ± 56 km s−1. Separate spectral fits of Chandra/HEG, AstroSat/SXT+LAXPC, and Chandra/HEG+AstroSat/SXT+LAXPC data show that the broadband continuum can be well described with a relativistic disk blackbody model, with a disk flux fraction of ∼0.97. Based on the best-fit continuum spectral modeling of Chandra, AstroSat, and Chandra+AstroSat joint spectra and using the Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations, we constrain the spectral hardening factor at and the dimensionless black hole spin parameter at 0.92 ± 0.04 within the 99.7% confidence interval. Our conclusion of a rapidly spinning black hole in 4U 1630–47 using the continuum spectrum method is in agreement with a previous finding applying the reflection spectral fitting method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent intensive Swift monitoring of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 yielded 282 usable epochs over 125 days across six UV/optical bands and the X-rays. This is the densest extended active galactic nucleus (AGN) UV/optical continuum sampling ever obtained, with a mean sampling rate <0.5 day. Approximately daily Hubble Space Telescope UV sampling was also obtained. The UV/optical light curves show strong correlations () and the clearest measurement to date of interband lags. These lags are well-fit by a wavelength dependence, with a normalization that indicates an unexpectedly large disk radius of lt-day at 1367 Å, assuming a simple face-on model. The U band shows a marginally larger lag than expected from the fit and surrounding bands, which could be due to Balmer continuum emission from the broad-line region as suggested by Korista and Goad. The UV/X-ray correlation is weaker () and less consistent over time. This indicates that while Swift is beginning to measure UV/optical lags in general agreement with accretion disk theory (although the derived size is larger than predicted), the relationship with X-ray variability is less well understood. Combining this accretion disk size estimate with those from quasar microlensing studies suggests that AGN disk sizes scale approximately linearly with central black hole mass over a wide range of masses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]