Low-mass eclipsing binaries serve as a benchmark for stellar evolution models asthey currently present the only means of acquiring stellar radii and masses witha sufficiently high degree of precision. Somewhat surprisingly one findsdiscrepancies between observed and modelled radii, which may be related to theactivity of the systems. We propose to carry out short, exploratory XMM-Newtonobservations of five of the systems where the discrepancies between predictionand observation are largest.
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2015-07-27T07:32:40Z/2015-09-23T07:49:41Z
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, Mr Volker Perdelwitz, 2016, 'An X-ray survey of short period low-mass eclipsing binary systems', 17.56_20190403_1200, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-27yun0v
