Many X-ray binary pulsars have a soft excess below 10 keV. For the highluminosity pulsars, the fit of this component with thermal emission modelsusually provides low temperatures and large emission regions. On the other hand,we recently found that in persistent, low-luminosity and long-period Be pulsarsthe observed excess can be modeled with a rather hot blackbody component ofsmall area, which can be interpreted as emission from the NS polar caps. Wepropose to observe the Galactic Be pulsar RX J0440.9+4431, which is a poorlystudied member of this class of sources. Our aim is to examine, at anunprecedented sensitivity level, its spectral and timing characteristics, and totest if the description of the other persistent pulsars is applicable also in this case.
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2011-03-18T10:30:13Z/2011-03-18T15:18:45Z
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 Nicola La Palombara, 2012, 'Observation of the persistent Be binary pulsars RX J0440.9+4431', 17.56_20190403_1200, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-znm8j8j
