New Observations and Insights into the Ultra Fast Outflow of PDS 456

Ultra-fast-outflows (UFOs, with v > 0.1c) in active galaxies (AGN) hold the potential to produce the most significant galactic feedback, and at the same are the hardest AGN outflow to explain theoretically. The luminous quasar PDS 456 hosts the archetypical UFO. Despite the source’s remarkable variability, it has featured a UFO time and time again over the past 20 years, each time with a slightly different appearance. The ability to observe the UFO at so many different flux states has allowed researchers to start understanding which states are favorable for launching these powerful outflows, and to estimate their kinetic power, better than in any other source. We will present results of a new multi-observatory campaign of PDS 456, showing spectra and light curves, all across the X-ray band (0.3 - 70 keV) and in the UV. The new results will be compared with historical spectroscopic analyses of PDS 456 to test whether the previous understanding of this exciting source still holds.