Search results for "Stars: activity"

PLANETS AROUND LOW-MASS STARS AND STELLAR ACTIVITY EFFECTS

In the last years the field of exoplanet research has focused its interest in M dwarfs. These stars have became the favourite targets in radial velocity surveys, specially when looking for small planets in the habitable zones of their parent stars. Not only for being the M dwarfs the most common objects in our Galaxy also because the Doppler signals due to small planets orbiting around them are larger and more easily detectable than those around FGK stars. However, stellar magnetic activity and rotation affect the measured radial velocities as surface inhomogeneities rotating with the stellar surface can cause periodic changes in the spectral line centroid. Disentangle these stellar activit…

Supersaturation and activity-rotation relation in PMS stars: the young Cluster h Per

2016

The magnetic activity of late-type MS stars is characterized by different regimes, and their activity levels are well described by Ro, the ratio between P_rot and the convective turnover time. Very young PMS stars show, similarly to MS stars, intense magnetic activity. However they do not show clear activity-rotation trends, and it still debated which stellar parameters determine their magnetic activity levels. To bridge the gap between MS and PMS stars, we studied the activity-rotation relation in the young cluster h Per, a ~13 Myr old cluster, that contains both fast and slow rotators, whose members have ended their accretion phase and have already developed a radiative core. It offers us…

The early B-type star Rho Oph A is an X-ray lighthouse

2017

We present the results of a 140 ks XMM-Newton observation of the B2 star $\rho$ Ophiuchi A. The star has exhibited strong X-ray variability: a cusp-shaped increase of rate, similar to that which we partially observed in 2013, and a bright flare. These events are separated in time by about 104 ks, which likely corresponds to the rotational period of the star (1.2 days). Time resolved spectroscopy of the X-ray spectra shows that the first event is caused by an increase of the plasma emission measure, while the second increase of rate is a major flare with temperatures in excess of 60 MK ($kT\sim5$ keV). From the analysis of its rise, we infer a magnetic field of $\ge300$ G and a size of the f…

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 …

Correcting the effect of stellar spots on ARIEL transmission spectra – II. The limb-darkening effect

2021

This paper is part of an effort to correct the transmission spectra of a transiting planet orbiting an active star. In Paper I (Cracchiolo et al. 2020) we have demonstrated a methodology to minimize the potential bias induced by unocculted star spots on the transmission spectrum, assuming a spot model parameterized by filling factor and temperature. In this work we introduce the limb darkening effect, therefore the position of the spot in the stellar disk and the impact parameter of the transiting planet now play a key role. The method is tested on simulations of planetary transits of three representative kinds of planetary systems, at ARIEL resolution. We find that a realistic treatment of…

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 …

Flares from small to large: X-ray spectroscopy of Proxima Centauri with XMM-Newton

2003

(Abridged) We report results from a comprehensive study of the nearby M dwarf Proxima Centauri with the XMM-Newton satellite. We find strongly variable coronal X-ray emission, with flares ranging over a factor of 100 in peak flux. The low-level emission is found to be continuously variable. Several weak flares are characteristically preceded by an optical burst, compatible with predictions from standard solar flare models. We propose that the U band bursts are proxies for the elusive stellar non-thermal hard X-ray bursts suggested from solar observations. A very large X-ray flare was observed in its entirety, with a peak luminosity of 3.9E28 erg/s [0.15-10 keV] and a total X-ray energy of 1…

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-…

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 …

X-ray Flares of EV Lac: Statistics, Spectra, Diagnostics

2010

We study the spectral and temporal behavior of X-ray flares from the active M-dwarf EV Lac in 200 ks of exposure with the Chandra/HETGS. We derive flare parameters by fitting an empirical function which characterizes the amplitude, shape, and scale. The flares range from very short (<1 ks) to long (10 ks) duration events with a range of shapes and amplitudes for all durations. We extract spectra for composite flares to study their mean evolution and to compare flares of different lengths. Evolution of spectral features in the density-temperature plane shows probable sustained heating. The short flares are significantly hotter than the longer flares. We determined an upper limit to the Fe…