51 Pegasi - a planet-bearing Maunder minimum candidate
Abstract
We observed 51 Peg, the first detected planet-bearing star, in a 55 ks XMM-Newton pointing and in 5 ks pointings each with Chandra HRC-I and ACIS-S. The star has a very low count rate in the XMM observation, but is clearly visible in the Chandra images due to the detectors' different sensitivity at low X-ray energies. This allows a temperature estimate for 51 Peg's corona of T⪉ 1 MK; the detected ACIS-S photons can be plausibly explained by emission lines of a very cool plasma near 200 eV. The constantly low X-ray surface flux and the flat-activity profile seen in optical Ca II data suggest that 51 Peg is a Maunder minimum star; an activity enhancement due to a Hot Jupiter, as proposed by recent studies, seems to be absent. The star's X-ray fluxes in different instruments are consistent with the exception of the HRC Imager, which might have a larger effective area below 200 eV than given in the calibration.
- Publication:
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Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- December 2009
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0911.4862
- Bibcode:
- 2009A&A...508.1417P
- Keywords:
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- stars: coronae;
- stars: activity;
- stars: individual: 51 Peg;
- X-rays: stars;
- X-rays: individuals: 51 Peg;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- accepted by A&