Soft coronal X-rays from β Pictoris
Abstract
A type stars are expected to be X-ray dark, yet weak emission has been detected from several objects in this class. We present new Chandra/HRC-I observations of the A5 V star β Pictoris. It is clearly detected with a flux of 9+-2 10-4 counts/s. In comparison with previous data this constrains the emission mechanism and we find that the most likely explanation is an optically thin, collisionally dominated, thermal emission component with a temperature around 1.1 MK. We interpret this component as a very cool and dim corona, with LX/Lbol=-8.2 (0.2-2.0 keV). Thus, it seems that β Pictoris shares more characteristics with cool stars than previously thought.
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