The bright star delta Sco has been considered a typical B0-type object for many years. Spectra of the star published prior to 1990 showed no evidence of emission, but only of short-term line profile variations attributed to nonradial... more
The bright star delta Sco has been considered a typical B0-type object for many years. Spectra of the star published prior to 1990 showed no evidence of emission, but only of short-term line profile variations attributed to nonradial pulsations. Speckle interferometric observations show that delta Sco is a binary system with a highly-eccentric orbit and a period of 10.6 years.
We report on high resolution Halpha spectroscopy and time-resolved photometry of the optical counterpart to the X-ray transient Swift J1357.2-0933 in outburst (Krimm et al. ATEL #3138). SPECTROSCOPY: Six 30-33 min spectra were obtained on... more
We report on high resolution Halpha spectroscopy and time-resolved photometry of the optical counterpart to the X-ray transient Swift J1357.2-0933 in outburst (Krimm et al. ATEL #3138). SPECTROSCOPY: Six 30-33 min spectra were obtained on the nights of 2011 Feb 25-27 using the IDS Spectrograph on the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) at the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos.
ABSTRACT Recent XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of the high mass X-ray binary LS 5039 / RX J1826.2-1450 caught the source in a faint X-ray state. In contrast with previous Rossi-XTE observations, we fail to detect any evidence of iron... more
ABSTRACT Recent XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of the high mass X-ray binary LS 5039 / RX J1826.2-1450 caught the source in a faint X-ray state. In contrast with previous Rossi-XTE observations, we fail to detect any evidence of iron line emission. We also fail to detect X-ray pulsations. The X-ray spectrum can be well fitted by a simple powerlaw, slightly harder than in previous observations, and does not require the presence of any additional disk or blackbody component. XMM-Newton data imply a X-ray photoelectric absorption consistent with optical reddening (NH ~ 7 × 1021 cm-2), indicating that no strong local absorption occurs. Among the possible source emission mechanisms and hypotheses on the nature of the compact object, a young pulsar scenario may be the most appropriate.
