Intense soft x-rays from RS Ophiuchi during the 1985 outburst

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5631057

Mason, K O; Cordova, F A; Bode, M F; Barr, P

Intense soft x-ray emission with a characteristic temperature of a few million degrees has been detected from the recurrent nova RS Oph approximately two months after its January 1985 optical outburst. This is the first detection of x-rays from such a system at outburst. The x-radiation is interpreted as emission from circumstellar gas that is shock heated by the passage of the blast wave from the nova explosion. The rapid decline of the x-ray flux between about 60 and 90 days after the outburst probably occurs because the blast wave has reached the edge of the volume filled, between outbursts, by the stellar wind of the red giant component of the binary system. Residual x-ray emission detected from RS Oph 250 days after the outburst is interpreted as coming from the surface of a white dwarf, at a temperature of approx.300,000K, where thermonuclear burning is persisting. 7 refs., 3 figs.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA); Mullard Space Science Lab., Dorking (UK); Preston Polytechnic (UK). Div. of Physics and Astronomy; European Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt (Germany, F.R.). EXOSAT Observatory
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 5631057
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-86-1216; CONF-851272-2; ON: DE86010175
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640103* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Quasi-Stellar
Radio
& X-Ray Sources-- (-1987)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BLACKBODY RADIATION
BREMSSTRAHLUNG
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTS
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
HYDROGEN
IONIZING RADIATIONS
NONMETALS
NOVAE
RADIATIONS
SOFT X RADIATION
STARS
TIME DEPENDENCE
VARIABLE STARS
X RADIATION