Search results for " stars: activity"
showing 10 items of 12 documents
A coronal explosion on the flare star CN Leonis
2008
We present simultaneous high-temporal and high-spectral resolution observations at optical and soft X-ray wavelengths of the nearby flare star CN Leo. During our observing campaign a major flare occurred, raising the star's instantaneous energy output by almost three orders of magnitude. The flare shows the often observed impulsive behavior, with a rapid rise and slow decay in the optical and a broad soft X-ray maximum about 200 seconds after the optical flare peak. However, in addition to this usually encountered flare phenomenology we find an extremely short (~2 sec) soft X-ray peak, which is very likely of thermal, rather than non-thermal nature and temporally coincides with the optical …
The Mouse That Roared: A Superflare from the dMe Flare Star EV Lac Detected by Swift and Konus-Wind
2010
We report on a large stellar flare from the nearby dMe flare star EV Lac observed by the Swift and Konus-Wind satellites and the Liverpool Telescope. It is the first large stellar flare from a dMe flare star to result in a Swift trigger based on its hard X-ray intensity. Its peak f_X from 0.3--100 keV of 5.3x10^-8 erg/cm2/s is nearly 7000 times larger than the star's quiescent coronal flux, and the change in magnitude in the white filter is >4.7. This flare also caused a transient increase in EV Lac's bolometric luminosity (L_bol) during the early stages of the flare, with a peak estimated L_X/L_bol ~3.1. We apply flare loop hydrodynamic modeling to the plasma parameter temporal changes …
The density of coronal plasma in active stellar coronae
2004
We have analyzed high-resolution X-ray spectra of a sample of 22 active stars observed with the High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer on {\em Chandra} in order to investigate their coronal plasma density. Densities where investigated using the lines of the He-like ions O VII, Mg XI, and Si XIII. While Si XIII lines in all stars of the sample are compatible with the low-density limit, Mg XI lines betray the presence of high plasma densities ($> 10^{12}$ cm$^{-3}$) for most of the sources with higher X-ray luminosity ($> 10^{30}$ erg/s); stars with higher $L_X$ and $L_X/L_{bol}$ tend to have higher densities at high temperatures. Ratios of O VII lines yield much lower densities …
XMM-Newton spectroscopy of the metal depleted T Tauri star TWA 5
2005
We present results of X-ray spectroscopy for TWA 5, a member of the young TW Hydrae association, observed with XMM-Newton. TWA~5 is a multiple system which shows Halpha emission, a signature typical of classical T Tauri stars, but no infrared excess. From the analysis of the RGS and EPIC spectra, we have derived the emission measure distribution vs. temperature of the X-ray emitting plasma, its abundances, and the electron density. The characteristic temperature and density of the plasma suggest a corona similar to that of weak-line T Tauri stars and active late-type main sequence stars. TWA 5 also shows a low iron abundance (~0.1 times the solar photospheric one) and a pattern of increasin…
Activity and Rotation in the Young Cluster h Per
2013
We study the stellar rotation-activity relation in the crucial age at which stars reach the fastest rotation. To this aim we have analyzed data of the young cluster h Per, very rich and compact, located at 2300 pc, that at an age of 13 Myr should be mainly composed of stars that have ended their contraction phase and that have not lost significant angular momentum viamagnetic breaking. To constrain the activity level of h Per members we have analyzed a deep Chandra/ACIS-I observation. Rotational periods of h Per members have been derived by Moraux et al. (2013) in the framework of the MONITOR project (Aigrain et al. 2007; Irwin et al. 2007). In the Chandra observation we have detected 1010 …
XMM-Newton survey of two upper Scorpius regions
2006
We study X-ray emission from young stars by analyzing deep XMM-Newton observations of two regions of the Upper Scorpius association, having an age of 5 Myr. Based on near infrared and optical photometry we identify 22 Upper Scorpius photometric members among the 224 detected X-ray sources. We derive coronal properties of Upper Scorpius stars by performing X-ray spectral and timing analysis. The study of four strong and isolated stellar flares allows us to derive the length of the flaring loops. Among the 22 Upper Scorpius stars, 13 are identified as Upper Scorpius photometric members for the first time. The sample includes 7 weak-line T Tauri stars and 1 classical T Tauri star, while the na…
Detailed diagnostics of an X-ray flare in the single giant HR 9024
2007
We analyze a 96 ks Chandra/HETGS observation of the single G-type giant HR 9024. The high flux allows us to examine spectral line and continuum diagnostics at high temporal resolution, to derive plasma parameters. A time-dependent 1D hydrodynamic model of a loop with half-length $L = 5 \times 10^{11}$ cm ($\sim R_{\star}/2$), cross-section radius $r = 4.3 \times 10^{10}$ cm, with a heat pulse of 15 ks and $2 \times 10^{11}$~erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ deposited at the loop footpoints, satisfactorily reproduces the observed evolution of temperature and emission measure, derived from the analysis of the strong continuum emission. For the first time we can compare predictions from the hydrodynamic …
X-ray flares on the UV Ceti-type star CC Eridani: a "peculiar" time-evolution of spectral parameters
2007
Context: Weak flares are supposed to be an important heating agent of the outer layers of stellar atmospheres. However, due to instrumental limitations, only large X-ray flares have been studied in detail until now. Aims: We used an XMM-Newton observation of the very active BY-Dra type binary star CC Eri in order to investigate the properties of two flares that are weaker than those typically studied in the literature. Methods: We performed time-resolved spectroscopy of the data taken with the EPIC-PN CCD camera. A multi-temperature model was used to fit the spectra. We inferred the size of the flaring loops using the density-temperature diagram. The loop scaling laws were applied for deriv…
The Sun as an X-ray star: Active region evolution, rotational modulation, and implications for stellar X-ray variability
2004
We study the contribution of an active region and its core to the luminosity and the spectrum of the Sun in the X-ray band and to the relevant solar emission measure vs. temperature distribution, EM(T). We also study the relevant changes in the course of four solar rotations, and the solar rotational modulation due to this active region, the only one present at that time. To this end, we have used a large sample of full-disk Yohkoh/SXT observations taken between July and October 1996, covering most of the active region evolution. From the Yohkoh/SXT data we have synthesized the X-ray spectra of the whole solar corona, and the focal plane data as they would be collected with Rosat/PSPC, XMM-…
On coronal structures and their variability in active stars: The case of Capella observed with Chandra/LETGS
2003
In this paper we present a detailed analysis of two X-ray spectra of Capella, taken eleven months apart with the Low Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (LETGS) of the Chandra Observatory. We have studied variability of the coronal emission over different time scales, both in the whole X-ray band and in narrow temperature ranges identified by lines. The comparison of the two observations shows that the whole coronal emission of Capella in March 2000 was 3% higher than in February 2001; there also appears to be a tendency, albeit a marginal one, for the hottest lines to show the largest changes between the two observations. A detailed search for short-term variability (on time scales ra…