Detección de la estrella simbiótica Hen 2-87 en rayos X con XMM-Newton

Abstract

Symbiotic stars are interacting binary systems, where accretion, most of the times, occurs onto a white dwarf. Until recently only a couple of dozens of symbiotics were known to be X-ray emitters, with most of the emission having energies of less than about 2.00 keV. In the last decade, with the launch of modern X-ray satellites such as XMM-Newton, Chandra and Swift, the number of known symbiotics with X-ray emission almost doubled. Here we present the detection of Hen 2-87 at soft X-rays energies (0.30-5.00 keV), a system that had not been previously detected at high energies. The X-ray emission is due to optically thin thermal emission, with no detectable variability on short time scales, suggesting that it is originated in a region where the winds from the white dwarf and the red giant collide. This new finding adds another member to the growing class of symbiotic stars as X-ray sources. FULL TEXT IN SPANISH