Search results for "Stars"
showing 10 items of 798 documents
Diving below the spin-down limit: Constraints on gravitational waves from the energetic young pulsar PSR J0537-6910
2021
We present a search for continuous gravitational-wave signals from the young, energetic X-ray pulsar PSR J0537-6910 using data from the second and third observing runs of LIGO and Virgo. The search is enabled by a contemporaneous timing ephemeris obtained using NICER data. The NICER ephemeris has also been extended through 2020 October and includes three new glitches. PSR J0537-6910 has the largest spin-down luminosity of any pulsar and is highly active with regards to glitches. Analyses of its long-term and inter-glitch braking indices provided intriguing evidence that its spin-down energy budget may include gravitational-wave emission from a time-varying mass quadrupole moment. Its 62 Hz …
X-ray emission from young brown dwarfs in the Orion Nebula Cluster
2005
We use the sensitive X-ray data from the Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project (COUP) to study the X-ray properties of 34 spectroscopically-identified brown dwarfs with near-infrared spectral types between M6 and M9 in the core of the Orion Nebula Cluster. Nine of the 34 objects are clearly detected as X-ray sources. The apparently low detection rate is in many cases related to the substantial extinction of these brown dwarfs; considering only the BDs with $A_V \leq 5$ mag, nearly half of the objects (7 out of 16) are detected in X-rays. Our 10-day long X-ray lightcurves of these objects exhibit strong variability, including numerous flares. While one of the objects was only detected during a sho…
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 …
Very Deep inside the SN 1987A Core Ejecta: Molecular Structures Seen in 3D
2017
Most massive stars end their lives in core-collapse supernova explosions and enrich the interstellar medium with explosively nucleosynthesized elements. Following core collapse, the explosion is subject to instabilities as the shock propagates outwards through the progenitor star. Observations of the composition and structure of the innermost regions of a core-collapse supernova provide a direct probe of the instabilities and nucleosynthetic products. SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is one of very few supernovae for which the inner ejecta can be spatially resolved but are not yet strongly affected by interaction with the surroundings. Our observations of SN 1987A with the Ataca…
High Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy of T Tauri Stars in the Taurus-Auriga Complex
2006
Differences have been reported between the X-ray emission of accreting and non-accreting stars. Some observations have suggested that accretion shocks could be responsible for part of the X-ray emission in Classical T Tauri stars (CTTS). We present high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of nine pre-main sequence stars in order to test the proposed spectroscopic differences between accreting and non-accreting pre-main sequence stars. We use X-ray spectroscopy from the XMM-Newton Reflection Grating Spectrometers and the EPIC instruments. We interpret the spectra using optically thin thermal models with variable abundances, together with an absorption column density. For BP Tau and AB Aur we deriv…
Subarcsecond Location of IGR J17480-2446 with Rossi XTE
2012
On 2010 October 13, the X-ray astronomical satellite Rossi XTE, during the observation of the newly discovered accretion powered X-ray pulsar IGR J17480--2446, detected a lunar occultation of the source. From knowledge of lunar topography and Earth, Moon, and spacecraft ephemeris at the epoch of the event, we determined the source position with an accuracy of 40 mas (1{\sigma} c.l.), which is interesting, given the very poor imaging capabilities of RXTE (\sim 1\circ). For the first time, using a non-imaging X-ray observatory, the position of an X-ray source with a subarcsecond accuracy is derived, demonstrating the neat capabilities of a technique that can be fruitfully applied to current a…
Three X-ray Flares Near Primary Eclipse of the RS CVn Binary XY UMa
2016
We report on an archival X-ray observation of the eclipsing RS CVn binary XY UMa ($\rm P_{orb}\approx$ 0.48d). In two $\emph{Chandra}$ ACIS observations spanning 200 ks and almost five orbital periods, three flares occurred. We find no evidence for eclipses in the X-ray flux. The flares took place around times of primary eclipse, with one flare occurring shortly ($<0.125\rm P_{orb}$) after a primary eclipse, and the other two happening shortly ($<0.05\rm P_{orb}$) before a primary eclipse. Two flares occurred within roughly one orbital period ($\Delta \phi\approx1.024\rm P_{orb}$) of each other. We analyze the light curve and spectra of the system, and investigate coronal length scales both…
Photometric variability of the Be star CoRoT-ID 102761769
2010
Classical Be stars are rapid rotators of spectral type late O to early A and luminosity class V-III, wich exhibit Balmer emission lines and often a near infrared excess originating in an equatorially concentrated circumstellar envelope, both produced by sporadic mass ejection episodes. The causes of the abnormal mass loss (the so-called Be phenomenon) are as yet unknown. For the first time, we can now study in detail Be stars outside the Earth's atmosphere with sufficient temporal resolution. We investigate the variability of the Be Star CoRoT-ID 102761769 observed with the CoRoT satellite in the exoplanet field during the initial run. One low-resolution spectrum of the star was obtained wi…
Study of a sample of faint Be stars in the exofield of CoRoT
2013
International audience; Context. Be stars are probably the most rapid rotators among stars in the main sequence (MS) and, as such, are excellent candidates to study the incidence of the rotation on the characteristics of their non-radial pulsations, as well as on their internal structure. Pulsations are also thought to be possible mechanisms that help the mass ejection needed to build up the circumstellar disks of Be stars.Aims. The purpose of this paper is to identify a number of faint Be stars observed with the CoRoT satellite and to determine their fundamental parameters, which will enable us to study their pulsation properties as a function of the location in the HR diagram and to searc…
Plasma sloshing in pulse-heated solar and stellar coronal loops
2016
There is evidence that coronal heating is highly intermittent, and flares are the high energy extreme. The properties of the heat pulses are difficult to constrain. Here hydrodynamic loop modeling shows that several large amplitude oscillations (~ 20% in density) are triggered in flare light curves if the duration of the heat pulse is shorter that the sound crossing time of the flaring loop. The reason is that the plasma has not enough time to reach pressure equilibrium during the heating and traveling pressure fronts develop. The period is a few minutes for typical solar coronal loops, dictated by the sound crossing time in the decay phase. The long period and large amplitude make these os…