Different mechanisms may power the quiescent emission of soft X-ray transients, impacting on the physics of fast spinning, weakly magnetic neutron stars subject to low mass inflow rates: a. the accretion regime; b. the propellerregime c. the radio pulsar regime. The emission location and spectrum should be: close to the neutron star and soft in cases a. and b.; from an extendedshock and power-law like in case c. Additional soft emission may originate fromneutron star cooling. We propose an 80 ks observation of the eclipsing systemX1658-298, covering 3 orbits. This will yield the source quiescent spectrum and exploit the X-ray eclipses to determine where the emission components originate. Only XMM has the sensitivity and throughput to carry out this study.
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2003-03-13T14:39:52Z/2003-03-14T13:45:59Z
Version
17.56_20190403_1200
Mission Description
The European Space Agencys (ESA) X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) was launched by an Ariane 504 on December 10th 1999. XMM-Newton is ESAs second cornerstone of the Horizon 2000 Science Programme. It carries 3 high throughput X-ray telescopes with an unprecedented effective area, and an optical monitor, the first flown on a X-ray observatory. The large collecting area and ability to make long uninterrupted exposures provide highly sensitive observations. Since Earths atmosphere blocks out all X-rays, only a telescope in space can detect and study celestial X-ray sources. The XMM-Newton mission is helping scientists to solve a number of cosmic mysteries, ranging from the enigmatic black holes to the origins of the Universe itself. Observing time on XMM-Newton is being made available to the scientific community, applying for observational periods on a competitive basis.
European Space Agency, Prof Luigi Stella, 2004, 'X1658-298: unveiling the emission mechanismopenParsclosePar of quiescent X-ray transients', 17.56_20190403_1200, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-sqeooc3
