| Proposal ID | 092075 |
| Title | Measuring the mass of the white dwarf in the symbiotic binary RT Cru |
| Download Data Associated to the proposal | https://nxsa.esac.esa.int/nxsa-sl/servlet/data-action-aio?obsno=0920750101 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.57780/esa-vffhtji |
| Principal Investigator, PI | Prof Frederick Walter |
| Abstract | The extraordinary symbiotic binary RT Cru, which hosts a massive (>1.25 solarmasses) white dwarf (WD) and thus is a serious candidate to be a SNIaprogenitor, is currently in a new optical/hard X-ray bright state; the previousone was detected in 2012 in optical photometry and with Swift/BAT. At that timethe accretion rate onto the WD increased, but did not reach the value where theaccretion disk boundary layer transitions to the optically thick regime. Wepropose to observe RT~Cru with XMM and NuSTAR during the current maximum --anevent that is unlikely to repeat within the next ten years -- in order to fullycharacterize the 0.3-80 keV spectrum during the maximum, allowing us to measurethe shock temperature and thus the WD mass and the accretion rate through the boundary layer. |
| Publications | No publications found for current proposal! |
| Instrument | EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2 |
| Temporal Coverage | 2023-02-20T08:49:42Z/2023-02-21T02:19:42Z |
| Version | 20.09_20221024_1724 |
| 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. |
| Creator Contact | https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/xmm-newton-helpdesk |
| Date Published | 2024-03-14T00:00:00Z |
| Last Update | 2025-01-27 |
| Keywords | XMM-Newton, OM, RGS, EPIC, X-ray, Multi-Mirror, SAS |
| Publisher And Registrant | European Space Agency |
| Credit Guidelines | European Space Agency, Prof Frederick Walter, 2024, 'Measuring the mass of the white dwarf in the symbiotic binary RT Cru', 20.09_20221024_1724, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.57780/esa-vffhtji |