Planetary nebulae (PNe) consist of material ejected by stars with masses lessthan 8-10 solar masses. The current fast stellar wind sweeps up the previousslow AGB wind to form the PN shell, and the shell interior is expected to befilled with hot gas that emits X-rays. Chandra and XMM-Newton have detecteddiffuse X-rays from PNe at levels much lower than theoretical expectations. Thedifferent abundances of the fast stellar wind and the slow AGB wind traces theorigin of the hot gas in PNe. We request XMM-Newton RGS observations of the twoX-ray-brightest PNe, BD+30 3639 and NGC 6543, to determine the chemicalabundances and origin of the hot gas and further use these to constrain theamount of heat conduction between the hot gas and the cool nebular shell.
Instrument
RGS1, EPN, RGS2, EMOS1, OM, EMOS2
Temporal Coverage
2006-03-03T23:08:50Z/2006-04-19T02:07:20Z
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, Dr Martin Guerrero, 2008, 'RGS Observations of the Two X-Ray-Brightest Planetary Nebulae: Origin of Hot Gas', 17.56_20190403_1200, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-qod49tm
