Discovery of a soft X-ray flux from AN Ursae Majoris.
Abstract
During November 1975, the soft X-ray detectors on the SAS 3 satellite scanned across AN Ursae Majoris, a star very similar to AM Herculis in its unusual optical properties. A soft (0.1-0.4 keV) X-ray flux averaging 2.8 x 10 to the -11th erg/sq cm-sec was detected from AN UMa, as had been anticipated by analogy with AM Her. Folding the X-ray flux measurement with the known binary period reveals an X-ray light curve with approximately 100% modulation, and thereby secures the identification of the X-ray source as AN UMa. Unlike the case in AM Her, the X-ray minimum in AN UMa occurs midway between optical linear-polarization peaks.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- August 1979
- DOI:
- 10.1086/183028
- Bibcode:
- 1979ApJ...232L..21H
- Keywords:
-
- Light Curve;
- Spaceborne Astronomy;
- Variable Stars;
- X Ray Sources;
- Optical Polarization;
- Radiant Flux Density;
- Sas-3;
- Satellite Observation;
- Astrophysics;
- AM Herculis Stars:X Rays