Continuous heating of a giant X-ray flare on Algol
Giant flares can release large amounts of energy within a few days: X-ray emission alone can be up to ten percent of the star's bolometric luminosity. These flares exceed the luminosities of the largest solar flares by many orders of magnitude, which suggests that the underlying physical mechan...
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ftdatacite:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9909040 2023-05-15T18:22:42+02:00 Continuous heating of a giant X-ray flare on Algol Schmitt, J. H. M. M. Favata, F. 1999 https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9909040 https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9909040 unknown arXiv https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/43389 Assumed arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license to distribute this article for submissions made before January 2004 http://arxiv.org/licenses/assumed-1991-2003/ Astrophysics astro-ph FOS Physical sciences article-journal Article ScholarlyArticle Text 1999 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9909040 https://doi.org/10.1038/43389 2022-04-01T17:21:15Z Giant flares can release large amounts of energy within a few days: X-ray emission alone can be up to ten percent of the star's bolometric luminosity. These flares exceed the luminosities of the largest solar flares by many orders of magnitude, which suggests that the underlying physical mechanisms supplying the energy are different from those on the Sun. Magnetic coupling between the components in a binary system or between a young star and an accretion disk has been proposed as a prerequisite for giant flares. Here we report X-ray observations of a giant flare on Algol B, a giant star in an eclipsing binary system. We observed a total X-ray eclipse of the flare, which demonstrates that the plasma was confined to Algol B, and reached a maximum height of 0.6 stellar radii above its surface. The flare occurred around the south pole of Algol B, and energy must have been released continously throughout its life. We conclude that a specific extrastellar environment is not required for the presence of a flare, and that the processes at work are therefore similar to those on the Sun. : Nature, Sept. 2 1999 Text South pole DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) South Pole |
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Astrophysics astro-ph FOS Physical sciences |
spellingShingle |
Astrophysics astro-ph FOS Physical sciences Schmitt, J. H. M. M. Favata, F. Continuous heating of a giant X-ray flare on Algol |
topic_facet |
Astrophysics astro-ph FOS Physical sciences |
description |
Giant flares can release large amounts of energy within a few days: X-ray emission alone can be up to ten percent of the star's bolometric luminosity. These flares exceed the luminosities of the largest solar flares by many orders of magnitude, which suggests that the underlying physical mechanisms supplying the energy are different from those on the Sun. Magnetic coupling between the components in a binary system or between a young star and an accretion disk has been proposed as a prerequisite for giant flares. Here we report X-ray observations of a giant flare on Algol B, a giant star in an eclipsing binary system. We observed a total X-ray eclipse of the flare, which demonstrates that the plasma was confined to Algol B, and reached a maximum height of 0.6 stellar radii above its surface. The flare occurred around the south pole of Algol B, and energy must have been released continously throughout its life. We conclude that a specific extrastellar environment is not required for the presence of a flare, and that the processes at work are therefore similar to those on the Sun. : Nature, Sept. 2 1999 |
format |
Text |
author |
Schmitt, J. H. M. M. Favata, F. |
author_facet |
Schmitt, J. H. M. M. Favata, F. |
author_sort |
Schmitt, J. H. M. M. |
title |
Continuous heating of a giant X-ray flare on Algol |
title_short |
Continuous heating of a giant X-ray flare on Algol |
title_full |
Continuous heating of a giant X-ray flare on Algol |
title_fullStr |
Continuous heating of a giant X-ray flare on Algol |
title_full_unstemmed |
Continuous heating of a giant X-ray flare on Algol |
title_sort |
continuous heating of a giant x-ray flare on algol |
publisher |
arXiv |
publishDate |
1999 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9909040 https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9909040 |
geographic |
South Pole |
geographic_facet |
South Pole |
genre |
South pole |
genre_facet |
South pole |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/43389 |
op_rights |
Assumed arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license to distribute this article for submissions made before January 2004 http://arxiv.org/licenses/assumed-1991-2003/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9909040 https://doi.org/10.1038/43389 |
_version_ |
1766202117322702848 |