No Arabic abstract
We have obtained X-ray observations of the bipolar planetary nebulae (PNe) NGC 2346 and NGC 7026 with XMM-Newton. These observations detected diffuse X-ray emission from NGC 7026 but not from NGC 2346. The X-ray emission from NGC 7026 appears to be confined within the bipolar lobes of the PN and has spectral properties suggesting a thermal plasma emitting at a temperature of 1.1 +0.5/-0.2 times 10^6 K. The X-ray spectrum of NGC 7026 is modeled using nebular and stellar abundances to assess whether a significant amount of nebular material has been mixed into the shocked-wind, but the results of this comparison are not conclusive owing to the small number of counts detected. Observations of bipolar PNe indicate that diffuse X-ray emission is much less likely detected in open-lobed nebulae than closed-lobed nebulae, possibly because open-lobed nebulae do not have strong fast winds or are unable to retain hot gas.
This paper presents new near-infrared observations of the planetary nebula NGC 2346. The data include a broad K-band image, an image in the H2 vibrationally excited 1-0S(1) line and K band slit spectra at three positions in the nebula. In the H2 1-0S(1) line, the nebula is characterized by a central, bright torus, surrounded by weaker emission with a typical butterfly shape, as seen in Halpha and CO lines. The K band spectra show 11 H2 lines with excitation energies from 6150 to 12552 K. The H2 data have been compared to the predictions of models which follow the evolution with time of the H2 emission in PNe of different core mass and shell properties (Natta & Hollenbach 1998). These models compute the emission originating in the photodissociation region (PDR) created at the inner edge of the neutral shell by the UV radiation of the central core, as well as the emission in the shock associated to the expansion of the shell inside the precursor red-giant wind. In NGC 2346, a PDR origin of the H2 emission in a low-density molecular shell (n<~10^4 cm^-3) is indicated. At these low densities, time-dependent H2 chemistry and X-ray heating of the neutral gas enhance the predicted PDR H2 line intensity by large factors.
We present a detailed analysis of broad band X-ray data of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC5506. 2-10 keV band are detected during a 1-day ASCA observation, while no significant change in the 2-10 keV continuum shape is found. The ASCA spectrum consists of an absorbed power-law, a soft excess below 2 keV, and an Fe K$alpha$ emission line at 6.4 keV. The soft excess can be well described by either thermal emission from very low abundance material at a temperature kT$simeq$0.8 keV, or scattered/leaking flux from the primary power-law plus a small amount of thermal emission. Analysis of ROSAT HRI data reveals that the soft X-ray emission is extended on kpc scales in this object, and the extended component may account for most of the soft X-ray excess observed by the ASCA. The result suggests that in this type 2 AGN, the soft excess at least partly comes from an extended region, imposing serious problem for the model in which the source is partially covered. Fe K$alpha$ profile is complex and can not be satisfactorily modeled by a single gaussian. Models of either double gaussians, or a narrow gaussian plus a line from a relativistic accretion disk viewed at an inclination of about 40$pm10^circ$ provide good fits to the data. However, the inclination of the disk can be substantially larger if there is a small amount of excessive Fe K edge absorption. The intermediate inclinations for NLXGs are consistent with the ideas that the inner accretion disk is aligned with the outer obscuring torus.
We present a high-quality hard X-ray spectrum of the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) NGC 5643 X-1 measured with NuSTAR in May-June 2014. We have obtained this spectrum by carefully separating the signals from the ULX and from the active nucleus of its host galaxy NGC 5643 located 0.8 arcmin away. Together with long XMM-Newton observations performed in July 2009 and August 2014, the NuSTAR data confidently reveal a high-energy cutoff in the spectrum of NGC 5643 X-1 above ~10 keV, which is a characteristic signature of ULXs. The NuSTAR and XMM-Newton data are consistent with the source having a constant luminosity ~1.5E40 erg/s (0.2-12 keV) in all but the latest observation (August 2014) when it brightened to ~3E40 erg/s. This increase is associated with the dominant, hard spectral component (presumably collimated emission from the inner regions of a supercritical accretion disc), while an additional, soft component (with a temperature ~0.3 keV if described by multicolor disk emission), possibly associated with a massive wind outflowing from the disk, is also evident in the spectrum but does not exhibit significant variability.
We present the results obtained from a detailed X-ray timing and spectral analysis of Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 6300 by using observations with the {it Suzaku}, {it Chandra} and {it NuSTAR} observatories between 2007 and 2016. We calculate variance, rms fractional variability of the source in different energy bands and find variabilities in various energy bands. Spectral properties of the source are studied by using various phenomenological and physical models. The properties of the Compton clouds, reflection, Fe K$alpha$ line emission and soft X-ray excess are studied in detail. Several physical parameters of the source are extracted and investigated to establish the presence/absence of any correlation between them. We also investigate the nature of the circumnuclear `torus and find that the torus is not uniform, rather clumpy. The observed changes in the line-of-sight column density can be explained in terms of transiting clouds. The iron line emitting region is found to be different in the different epoch of observations. We also observe that the torus and the nucleus independently evolve over the years.
We present the characteristics of the X-ray variability of stars in the cluster NGC2516 as derived from XMM-Newton/EPIC/pn data. The X-ray variations on short (hours), medium (months), and long (years) time scales have been explored. We detected 303 distinct X-ray sources by analysing six EPIC/pn observations; 194 of them are members of the cluster. Stars of all spectral types, from the early-types to the late-M dwarfs, were detected. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test applied to the X-ray photon time series shows that, on short time scales, only a relatively small fraction (ranging from 6% to 31% for dG and dF, respectively) of the members of NGC2516 are variable with a confidence level $geq$99%; however, it is possible that the fraction is small only because of the poor statistics. The time X-ray amplitude distribution functions (XAD) of a set of dF7-dK2 stars, derived on short (hours) and medium (months) time scales, seem to suggest that medium-term variations, if present, have a much smaller amplitude than those on short time scales; a similar result is also obtained for dK3-dM stars. The amplitude variations of late-type stars in NGC2516 are consistent with those of the coeval Pleiades stars. Comparing these data with those of ROSAT/PSPC, collected 7-8 years earlier, and of ROSAT/HRI, just 4-5 years earlier, we find no evidence of significant variability on the related time scales, suggesting that long-term variations due to activity cycles similar to the solar cycle are not common among young stars. Indications of spectral variability was found in one star whose spectra at three epochs were available.