X-rays from Stars and Planetary Systems. (arXiv:1910.05662v1 [astro-ph.HE])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Drake_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">Jeremy J. Drake</a>
The Chandra X-ray Observatory has completed a remarkable twenty years in
orbit. A large part of the science program of Chandra during this time has
involved the study of stars and their planetary systems. This primer aims to
give the reader a taste of the enormous range of stellar and planetary
astrophysics that Chandra has enabled. Beginning with a tour of the X-ray solar
system zoo, including the stunning pulsating X-ray aurorae of Jupiter, we then
move on to the hot million-degree outer atmospheres of stars like our own Sun,
whose X-ray emission is driven by an internal magnetic dynamo. The same
emission processes are also vigorously present in the youngest stars, and we
highlight some Chandra observations and results on nascent stellar and
planetary systems. Chandra surveys and high-resolution spectroscopy of massive
stars have provided a new window on the means by which they scavenge X-ray
emission from their radiatively-driven winds, sometimes modulating this output
by strong underlying stellar magnetic fields. We touch upon the evanescent
X-radiation from intermediate-mass stars before arriving at the inevitable
evolutionary endpoints of all but massive stars, first in energized X-ray
emitting planetary nebulae, then in the slowly cooling, soft-X-ray emitting
photospheres of white dwarfs. We conclude with white dwarfs in close binary
systems, rejuvenated by interaction with a companion and where accretion gives
play to a new range of energetic behavior even more spectacular and cataclysmic
than the coruscant astrophysical road down which they have travelled.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory has completed a remarkable twenty years in
orbit. A large part of the science program of Chandra during this time has
involved the study of stars and their planetary systems. This primer aims to
give the reader a taste of the enormous range of stellar and planetary
astrophysics that Chandra has enabled. Beginning with a tour of the X-ray solar
system zoo, including the stunning pulsating X-ray aurorae of Jupiter, we then
move on to the hot million-degree outer atmospheres of stars like our own Sun,
whose X-ray emission is driven by an internal magnetic dynamo. The same
emission processes are also vigorously present in the youngest stars, and we
highlight some Chandra observations and results on nascent stellar and
planetary systems. Chandra surveys and high-resolution spectroscopy of massive
stars have provided a new window on the means by which they scavenge X-ray
emission from their radiatively-driven winds, sometimes modulating this output
by strong underlying stellar magnetic fields. We touch upon the evanescent
X-radiation from intermediate-mass stars before arriving at the inevitable
evolutionary endpoints of all but massive stars, first in energized X-ray
emitting planetary nebulae, then in the slowly cooling, soft-X-ray emitting
photospheres of white dwarfs. We conclude with white dwarfs in close binary
systems, rejuvenated by interaction with a companion and where accretion gives
play to a new range of energetic behavior even more spectacular and cataclysmic
than the coruscant astrophysical road down which they have travelled.
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