Abstract
THE Einstein Observatory survey of cosmic X-ray sources a decade ago showed that coronae were common among diverse types of star, and were in many cases more energetic than the Sun's corona. Such coronae seemed, however, to disappear abruptly across a 'dividing line' in the Hertzsprung–Russell (H–R) diagram describing the evolution of intermediate-mass stars towards the red giant phase1–5. Here we use results from the Rosat all-sky survey, which increases by an order of magnitude the number of X-ray stars, to show that the dividing line is not an artefact of poor sampling. Optical and ultraviolet observations show that the dividing line in the H–R diagram coincides approximately with the onset of cool, massive stellar winds6–15, but we show that these winds are not sufficiently dense for simple X-ray absorption to be the cause of the disappearance of coronal emission. We conclude, therefore, that the dividing line represents a true evolutionary transition in these stars, at which the hot coronae are replaced by cool winds.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Linsky, J. L. & Haisch, B. Astrophys. J. 229, L27–L32 (1979).
Ayres, T. R. et al. Astrophys. J. 250, 293–299 (1981).
Haisch, B. & Simon, T. Astrophys. J. 273, 252–258 (1982).
Simon, T., Linsky, J. L. & Stencel, R. E. Astrophys. J. 257, 225–246 (1982).
Haisch, B. in Lecture Notes in Physics, Vol. 291, 269–282 (1987).
Reimers, D. & Schmitt, J.H.M.M. Astrophys. J. 392, L55–L58 (1992).
Reimers, D. Astr. Astrophys. 57, 395–400 (1977).
Hartmann, L., Dupree, A. K. & Raymond, J. C. Astrophys. J. 236, L143–L147 (1980).
Judge, P. G., Jordan, C. & Rowan-Robinson, M. Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 24, 93–106 (1987).
Brown, A., Drake, S. A., van Steenberg, M. E. & Linsky, J. L. Astrophys. J. 373, 614–619 (1991).
Dupree, A. K. A. Rev. Astr. Astrophys. 24, 377–420 (1986).
Lafon, J.-P. J. & Berruyer, N. Astr. Astrophys. Rev. 2, 249–289 (1991).
Judge, P. G. & Stencel, R. E. Astrophys. J. 371, 357–379 (1991).
Hartmann, L., Jordan, C., Brown, A. & Dupree, A. K. Astrophys. J. 296, 576–592 (1985).
Haisch, B., Schmitt, J. H. M. M. & Rosso, C. Astrophys. J. 388, L61–L64 (1992).
Trümper, J. et al. Nature 349, 579–583 (1991).
Haisch, B., Schmitt, J. H. M. M. & Rosso, C. Astrophys. J. 383, L15–L18 (1991).
Haisch, B., Linsky, J. L. & Basri, G. S. Astrophys. J. 235, 519–533 (1980).
Mewe, R., Gronenschild, E. H. B. M. & van den Oord, G. H. J. Astr. Astrophys. 62, 197–254 (1985).
Mewe, R. Astr. Astrophys. Rev. 3, 127–168 (1991).
Bruner, M. E. & McWhirter, R. W. P. Astrophys. J. 326, 1002–1016 (1988).
Dere, K. P. Solar Phys. 77, 77–93 (1982).
Zombeck, M. Handbook of Space Astronomy and Astrophysics, 110 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1982).
Ayres, T. R., Fleming, T. A. & Schmitt, J. H. M. M. Astrophys. J. 376, L45–L48 (1991).
Maggio, A. et al. Astrophys. J. 348, 253–278 (1990).
Antiochos, S. K., Haisch, B. M. & Stern, R. A. Astrophys. J. 307, L55–L59 (1986).
Rosner, R., An, C.-H., Musielak, Z. E., Moore, R. L. & Suess, S. T. Astrophys. J. 372, L91–L94 (1991).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Haisch, B., Schmitt, J. & Fabian, A. Disappearance of coronal X-ray emission in stars with cool dense winds. Nature 360, 239–241 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1038/360239a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/360239a0
This article is cited by
-
Magnetic field measurements on four yellow supergiants. I
Astrophysics (2005)
-
Spectroscopic diagnostics in the VUV for solar and stellar plasmas
The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review (1994)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.
