Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2004-08-18
Nature, Vol. 430, pp. 429-431 (July 22, 2004)
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
15 pages, 3 figures; published in Nature
Scientific paper
10.1038/nature02747
Young, low-mass stars are luminous X-ray sources whose powerful X-ray flares may exert a profound influence over the process of planet formation. The origin of such emission is uncertain. Although many or perhaps most recently formed, low-mass stars emit X-rays as a consequence of solar-like coronal activity, it has also been suggested that X-ray emission may be a direct result of mass accretion onto the forming star. Here we report X-ray imaging spectroscopy observations which reveal a factor ~50 increase in the X-ray flux from a young star that is presently undergoing a spectacular optical/IR outburst. The outburst is thought to be due to the sudden onset of a phase of rapid accretion. The coincidence of a surge in X-ray brightness with the optical/IR eruption demonstrates that strongly enhanced high-energy emission from young stars can occur as a consequence of high accretion rates. We suggest that such accretion- enhanced X-ray emission from erupting young stars may be short-lived, because intense star-disk magnetospheric interactions are quenched rapidly by the subsequent accretion flood.
Frank Alejandro
Grosso Nicolas
Hamaguchi Kenji
Henden Arne A.
Kastner Joel H.
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