Published August 15, 1979 | Version v1
Journal article

Discovery of a soft X-ray flux from an Ursae Majoris

  • 1. Department of Physics and Center for Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Description

During 1975 November, 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. For the first time, a soft (0.1--0.4 keV) X-ray flux averaging 2.8 x 10-11 ergs cm-2 S-1 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 approx.100% modulation, and thereby secures the identification of 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

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Astrophys. J., Lett. Ed.
Journal Volume
232
Journal Issue
1
Series
Astrophys. J., Lett. Ed.
Journal Page Range
L21-L23