The Enigmatic X-ray Point Sources at the Central Stars of NGC 6543 and NGC 7293

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arXiv:astro-ph/0104270v1 16 Apr 2001TheAstrophysicalJournalLettersPreprinttypesetusingLATEXstyleemulateapjv.14/09/00

THEENIGMATICX-RAYPOINTSOURCESATTHECENTRALSTARSOFNGC6543ANDNGC7293

Mart´ınA.Guerrero1,You-HuaChu1,RobertA.Gruendl1,RosaM.Williams2,3,andJamesB.Kaler1

Received2001March26;accepted2001April16

ABSTRACTRecentChandraACIS-SobservationshavedetectedapointsourceatthecentralstarofNGC6543andconfirmedthepointsourcenatureofthehardX-rayemissionfromNGC7293.TheX-rayspectraofbothsourcespeakbetween0.5keVand1.0keVandshowlinefeaturesindicatingathinplasmaattemperaturesofafewtimes106K.TheirX-rayluminositiesare1030ergs−1and3×1029ergs−1,respectively.Wehaveconsideredfourdifferentmechanismstoexplainthenatureofthesesources.TheX-rayemissionfromthecentralstarofNGC6543mayoriginatefromthecoronalactivityofanundetectedcompanionstarorfromshocksinitsfaststellarwind,whilethehardX-rayemissionfromNGC7293mightbeascribedtoanundetecteddMecompanion.Follow-upobservationsareneededtodeterminetheexistenceandnaturesofthesestellarcompanions.

Subjectheadings:planetarynebulae:general–planetarynebulae:individual(NGC6543,NGC7293)–stars:AGBandpost-AGB–X-rays:stars

1.introductionCentralstarsofplanetarynebulae(PNs)areexpectedtoemitsoftX-raysiftheireffectivetemperaturesaregreaterthan100,000K.Indeed,suchX-raysourceshavebeende-tectedbyEinstein,EXOSAT,andROSAT,andtheX-rayphotonsdetectedhaveenergieswellbelow0.5keV(Hoareetal.1995;Guerrero,Chu,&Gruendl2000).InadditiontothesoftX-rayemissionfromthephotosphere,ROSATobservationsofthecentralstarsofLoTr5andNGC7293(alsoknownastheHelixNebula)showaharderX-raycomponentpeakingbetween0.5and1.0keV(Leahy,Zhang,&Kwok1994;Guerrero,Chu,&Gruendl2000).ThecentralstarofLoTr5isaknownbinary(Feibelman&Kaler1983),andthecoronalactivityofitsG5IIIcom-panionmayberesponsibleforthehardX-rayemission(Hoareetal.1995;Jasniewiczetal.1996).ThecentralstarofNGC7293,ontheotherhand,isnotaknownbi-nary(Ciardulloetal.1999).IthasbeensuggestedthatthehardX-rayemissionfromNGC7293originatesfromtheinteractionbetweenthefaststellarwindandtheambientnebularmaterial(Leahy,Zhang,&Kwok1994;Leahyetal.1996).Ifthisistrue,theX-rayemissionfromNGC7293shouldbespa-tiallyextended,similartothatobservedinNGC6543(Chuetal.2001).WehaveobtainedChandraobservationsofNGC7293andfindthatthissourceremainsunresolvedbyChandra’shighresolution.WehavealsoobtainedChandraobservationsofNGC6543(theCat’sEyeNebula)andfindthatitscentralstaremitsX-rays,too(Chuetal.2001).TheX-rayspec-trumofthissourcepeaksat>0.5keV;thus,NGC6543joinsNGC7293ashostsofenigmaticpointX-raysources.ThispaperreportsourChandraobservationsofthepointsourcesinNGC6543andNGC7293.Theobservationsare

describedin§2,thepropertiesoftheX-rayemissionarepresentedin§3,thepossibleoriginsoftheseX-raysourcesarediscussedin§4,andtheconclusionsaresummarizedin§5.

2.observationsNGC6543andNGC7293wereobservedwiththeAd-vancedCCDImagingSpectrometer(ACIS)onboardChandraX-rayObservatoryon2000May10–11and1999November17–18fortotalexposuretimesof46.0and47.7ks,respectively.Thenebularcenterswereplacedontheback-illuminated(BI)CCDchipS3,thenominalaimpointfortheACIS-Sarray.TheinstrumentalFWHMoftheACISobservationsis0.′′7–0.′′8at≤1keV(Ware&McNa-mara1999).Theenergyresolution,E/∆E,is∼4.3at0.5keVand∼9at1.0keV.WereceivedLevel1andLevel2processeddatafromtheChandraDataCenter.Thedatareductionandanal-ysiswereperformedusingtheChandraX-rayCentersoft-wareCIAOV1.1.5andHEASARCFTOOLSandXSPECV11.0.1routines(Arnaud1996).Nobackground“flares”affectedtheobservationsandnotimeintervalsneededtoberemoved.

3.propertiesofthex-rayemission3.1.IdentificationofPointSourcesTheChandraobservationsofNGC6543detected1,950±50counts,ofwhich∼100countsoriginatedatapoint-likesourceandtherestcorrespondedtodiffuseemis-sion(Chuetal.2001).TheobservationsofNGC7293de-tected2,100±50counts,allfromapoint-likesource.TheChandracoordinatesofbothpoint-likesourcesarewithin1′′ofthecoordinatesofthecentralstarsderivedfromthe

1AstronomyDepartment,UniversityofIllinois,1002W.GreenStreet,Urbana,IL61801,USA;chu@astro.uiuc.edu,mar@astro.uiuc.edu,

gruendl@astro.uiuc.edu,kaler@astro.uiuc.edu2NationalResearchCouncilAssociate

3NASA’sGSFC,code662,Greenbelt,MD20771,USA;rosanina@lhea1.gsfc.nasa.gov

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