Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21345415d&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #454.15; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.353
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The vast majority of stars (those with masses less than 1.7 solar masses) have X-ray emitting coronae for all but their red giant and later stages of their evolution. Such coronae are believed to be powered by a magnetic dynamo mechanism that results from an interplay between the convective and rotational flows in their outer envelopes, although the details, e.g., whether coronae are predominantly energized by flares, waves, currents, etc., are still actively debated. As stars age, they lose angular momentum through their stellar wind, and their coronae become less powerful, e.g., the present solar corona's X-ray luminosity is only 10-7 of its total luminosity, and cooler, e.g., the bulk of the solar corona is cooler than 3 MK.
Because of sensitivity limitations, essentially all operating and previous X-ray observatories with high spectral resolution capabilities have studied primarily the exceptional X-ray luminous coronal stars, such as active binaries and stars much younger than the Sun, i.e., the `tip of the iceberg' of the stellar coronal population. The high-resolution instruments on the International X-Ray Observatory (IXO) will enable us to study the complex, line-rich spectra of a wide range of stellar coronae in unprecedented detail, e.g., with an E/Delta E of 3000 implying a velocity resolution of 100 km/s. We discuss sample programs that IXO could conduct on various classes of stellar coronal sources, and the information that these would yield on coronal abundances, temperatures, electron densities, etc., and potentially on the underlying coronal heating mechanism(s).
Drake Stephen Alan
Gagne Marc
Huenemoerder David P.
Osten Rachel Ann
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