X-ray flares of the young planet host DS Tuc A

Abridged. We observed the 40 Myr old star DS Tuc A with XMM-Newton and recorded two X-ray bright flares, with the second event occurring about 12 ks after the first one. Their duration from the rise to the end of the decay was of about 8-10 ks in soft X-rays (0.3-10 keV). The flares were also recorded in the band 200-300 nm with the UVM2 filter of the Optical Monitor. The duration of the flares in UV was about 3 ks. The observed delay between the peak in the UV band and in X-rays is a probe of the heating phase followed by the evaporation and increase of density and emission measure of the flaring loop. The coronal plasma temperature at the two flare peaks reached 54-55 MK. The diagnostics …

X-ray observations of the young open cluster Blanco 1. The XMM-Newton view

We present the analysis of a 50 ks XMM-Newton observation of the young, metal-rich open cluster Blanco 1. In the sum of EPIC MOS 1, MOS 2 and pn data we have detected 190 X-ray sources, 36 of them having as cluster member as optical counterparts. We have analyzed the X-ray spectra and time variability of the light curves of the cluster sources. Coronal spectra of solar mass stars are characterized by two thermal components at 0.3 and 1.0 keV, with comparable emission measure. One late-A type member shows a coronal spectrum remarkably different from that of solar-type members, thus suggesting an intrinsic difference in the corona production mechanism. The X-ray luminosity distribution of M-t…

MHD modeling of supernova remnants expanding through inhomogeneous interstellar medium

First light observations of the solar wind in the outer corona with the Metis coronagraph

In this work, we present an investigation of the wind in the solar corona that has been initiated by observations of the resonantly scattered ultraviolet emission of the coronal plasma obtained with UVCS-SOHO, designed to measure the wind outflow speed by applying Doppler dimming diagnostics. Metis on Solar Orbiter complements the UVCS spectroscopic observations that were performed during solar activity cycle 23 by simultaneously imaging the polarized visible light and the H I Lyman-α corona in order to obtain high spatial and temporal resolution maps of the outward velocity of the continuously expanding solar atmosphere. The Metis observations, taken on May 15, 2020, provide the first H I …

Science Objectives for an X-Ray Microcalorimeter Observing the Sun

We present the science case for a broadband X-ray imager with high-resolution spectroscopy, including simulations of X-ray spectral diagnostics of both active regions and solar flares. This is part of a trilogy of white papers discussing science, instrument (Bandler et al. 2010), and missions (Bookbinder et al. 2010) to exploit major advances recently made in transition-edge sensor (TES) detector technology that enable resolution better than 2 eV in an array that can handle high count rates. Combined with a modest X-ray mirror, this instrument would combine arcsecondscale imaging with high-resolution spectra over a field of view sufficiently large for the study of active regions and flares,…

X-raying the interstellar medium: the study of SNR shells at the OAPa

The Sun as a benchmark of flaring activity in stellar coronae

The solar corona is a template to study and understand stellar activity. However the solar corona differs from that of active stars: the Sun has lower X‐ray luminosity, and on average cooler plasma temperatures. Active stellar coronae have a hot peak in their emission measure distribution, EM (T), at 8–20 MK, while the non‐flaring solar corona has a peak at 1–2 MK. In the solar corona significant amounts of plasma at temperature ∼10 MK are observed only during flares.To investigate what is the time‐averaged effect of solar flares we measure the disk‐integrated time‐averaged emission measure, EMF (T), of an unbiased sample of solar flares. To this aim we analyze uninterrupted GOES/XRS light …

The first coronal mass ejection observed in both visible-light and UV HI Ly-α channels of the Metis coronagraph on board Solar Orbiter

Context.The Metis coronagraph on board Solar Orbiter offers a new view of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), observing them for the first time with simultaneous images acquired with a broad-band filter in the visible-light interval and with a narrow-band filter around the H ILy-αline at 121.567 nm, the so-called Metis UV channel.Aims.We show the first Metis observations of a CME, obtained on 16 and 17 January 2021. The event was also observed by the EUI/FSI imager on board Solar Orbiter, as well as by other space-based coronagraphs, such as STEREO-A/COR2 and SOHO/LASCO/C2, whose images are combined here with Metis data.Methods.Different images are analysed here to reconstruct the 3D orientation…

Hinode/XRT Diagnostics of Loop Thermal Structure

We investigate possible diagnostics of the thermal structure of coronal loops from Hinode/XRT observations made with several filters. We consider the observation of an active region with five filters. We study various possible combinations of filter data to optimize for sensitivity to thermal structure and for signal enhancement.

Hot Plasma Detected in Active Regions by HINODE/XRT and SDO/AIA

Multiple ratios of Hinode/XRT filters showed evidence of a minor very hot emission measure component in active regions. Recently also SDO/AIA detected hot plasma in the core of an active region. Here we provide estimates showing that the amount of emission measure of the hot component detected with SDO is consistent with that detected with Hinode/XRT.

Modeling the long duration rise phase of a flare detected on the M star TWA 11 B

We present preliminary results from the analysis of a long duration flare that was observed in a serendipitous XMM-Newton detection of the M star CD-39 7717 B (TWA 11 B), member of the young stellar association TW Hya. Only the rise phase (with a duration of ~35 ks) and possibly the flare peak are present in the light-curve. The decay phase was not monitored. The fluorescent iron emission line at 6.4 keV was observed during this event. As far as we are concerned, since TWA 11 B seems to have no disk, this is only the third detection of Fe photospheric fluorescence. During the flare, the X-ray flux increased a factor of ~4. Taking the light curve and the evolution of the hardness ratio into …

Temperature Diagnostics of a Solar Active Region Using a Single-Filter Observation of Hinode/XRT

Broad-band X-ray observations can provide limited temperature diagnostics through filter ratios. A high cadence observation of an active region made with a single Hinode/XRT filter allows us to use an alternative approach in which we measure the time fluctuations of the pixel count rate and use the variance as temperature proxy. We show the results and discuss limitations of method.

Using AMR to Simulate the 3-D Hydrodynamic Interaction of Supernova Shocks with Interstellar Gas Clouds

Mhd-Modeling of the Propagation of a Coronal Mass Ejection

Hydrodynamic modeling of the propagation of a density perturbation launched upwards in the solar corona has been shown to explain some features of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) observed in detail with the SoHO/UVCS, but left open the questions of the evidence of thermal insulation of the CME and of its large expansion factor. We investigate whether the interaction with the coronal magnetic field is able to explain these aspects, by performing magnetohydrodynamic simulations. We solve the ideal MHD equations for a fully ionized compressible plasma with different assumptions on the ambient magnetic field, using the FLASH code. We include the effect of the directional thermal conduction. Preli…

Hydrodynamic interaction of SNR shocks with thermally conducting, radiative clouds .

Accretion shock on CTTSs and its X-ray emission

High spectral resolution X-ray observations of classical T Tauri stars (CTTSs) demonstrate the presence of plasma at T~2-3×10^6 K and ne~10^11-10^13 cm-3. Stationary models suggest that this emission is due to shock-heated accreting material. We address this issue by a 1-D hydrodynamic model of the impact of the accretion flow onto a chromosphere of a CTTS with the aim of investigating the stability of accretion shock and the role of the chromosphere. Our simulations include the effects of gravity, radiative losses from optically thin plasma, the thermal conduction and a detailed modeling of the stellar chromosphere. Here we present the results of a simulation based on the parameters of the…

The coronae of bright late-type stars observed with EPIC and RGS

Mass accretion to young stars triggered by flaring activity in circumstellar discs

Young low-mass stars are characterized by ejection of collimated outflows and by circumstellar discs which they interact with through accretion of mass. The accretion builds up the star to its final mass and is also believed to power the mass outflows, which may in turn remove the excess angular momentum from the star-disc system. However, although the process of mass accretion is a critical aspect of star formation, some of its mechanisms are still to be fully understood. A point not considered to date and relevant for the accretion process is the evidence of very energetic and frequent flaring events in these stars. Flares may easily perturb the stability of the discs, thus influencing th…

PROMINENCE PLASMA DIAGNOSTICS THROUGH EXTREME-ULTRAVIOLET ABSORPTION

In this paper we introduce a new diagnostic technique that uses prominence EUV and UV absorption to determine the prominence plasma electron temperature and column emission measure, as well as He/H relative abundance; if a realistic assumption on the geometry of the absorbing plasma can be made, this technique can also yield the absorbing plasma electron density. This technique capitalizes on the absorption properties of Hydrogen and Helium at different wavelength ranges and temperature regimes. Several cases where this technique can be successfully applied are described. This technique works best when prominence plasmas are hotter than 15,000 K and thus it is ideally suited for rapidly hea…

The OAPA/DPSFA: solar physics, instrumental expertise, and the XACT facility

The potential contribution to Solar Orbiter hardware, calibration and testing from the Palermo group (Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo G.S. Vaiana + Sezione di Astronomia del Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche ed Astronomiche (DpSFA), Università di Palermo) will be mostly based on the XACT facility and the related expertise. The X-ray Astronomy Calibration and Testing (XACT) facility of Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo "G.S. Vaiana" (OAPA) includes vacuum systems, sources, monochromators, detectors, mechanical manipulators, clean room, etc. that permits us to perform measurements in the spectrum ranging from visible light to soft X-rays (0.001 - 10 keV). The facility is currently used in…

Nanoflare Evidence from Analysis of the X-Ray Variability of an Active Region Observed with Hinode/XRT

The heating of the solar corona is one of the big questions in astrophysics. Rapid pulses called nanoflares are among the best candidate mechanisms. The analysis of the time variability of coronal X-ray emission is potentially a very useful tool to detect impulsive events. We analyze the small-scale variability of a solar active region in a high cadence Hinode/XRT observation. The dataset allows us to detect very small deviations of emission fluctuations from the distribution expected for a constant rate. We discuss the deviations in the light of the pulsed-heating scenario.

Flaring activity on the disk of Classical T Tauri Stars: effects on disk stability

Classical T Tauri Stars (CTTSs) are young stellar objects surrounded by a circumstellar disk with which they exchange mass and angular momentum through accretion. Despite this process is a crucial aspect of star formation, some issues are still not clear; in particular how the material loses angular momentum and falls into the star. CTTSs are also characterized by strong X-ray emission. Part of this X-ray emission comes from the heated plasma in the external regions of the stellar corona with temperature between 1 and 100 MK. The plasma heating is presumably due to the strong magnetic field (Feigelson and Montmerle, 1999) in the form of high energetic flares in proximity of the stellar surf…

Mass accretion to young stars triggered by flaring activity in circumstellar disks

Young low-mass stars are characterized by ejection of collimated outflows and by circumstellar disks which they interact with through accretion of mass. The accretion builds up the star to its final mass and is also believed to power the mass outflows, which may in turn remove the excess angular momentum from the star-disk system. However, although the process of mass accretion is a critical aspect of star formation, some of its mechanisms are still to be fully understood. A point not considered to date and relevant for the accretion process is the evidence of very energetic and frequent flaring events in these stars. Flares may easily perturb the stability of the disks, thus influencing th…

Stationary and Flaring Heating Effect on the Coronal Emission Measure .

Temperature and density structure of hot and cool loops derived from the analysis of TRACE data

We address the plasma structuring both across and along the magnetic field in two sets of solar coronal loops, observed with TRACE in the 17lÅ and 195Å passbands. We derive, after proper background removal, the density stratification and the thermal structure of the plasma in the fibrils forming the loops with two techniques: a) filter ratio diagnostic (195 Å/171 Å) and b) modeling intensity profiles along the fibrils with hydrostatic models. We find evidence of a hot fibril (T ∼ 5·106 K), with temperature and density stratification well-described with a typical non-isothermal hydrostatic loop model, and evidence of rather cold fibrils (T ∼ 2 · 105 K), isothermal and probably in dynamic con…

Large Scale Properties of Coronal Heating along the Solar Cycle

We discuss various studies of the global properties of coronal heating. Some of them find power laws tying the X-ray luminosity with the magnetic flux of individual structures, of the whole Sun, and of active solar-type stars. Others are based on methods to model the Sun as an X-ray star. We also briefly discuss solar-like active stars and how the Sun fits in the whole scenario. We use a new model, including all flares, of the Sun as an X-ray star to describe the evolution of the corona along the solar cycle and the implications on the heating of closed coronal structures. We point out that, as activity increases, more heating is released into the confined coronal plasma and such a heating …

XIPE: the X-ray imaging polarimetry explorer

arXiv:1309.6995v1.-- et al.