Discovery of X-rays from Mars with Chandra

On 4 July 2001, X-rays from Mars were detected for the first time. The observation was performed with the ACIS-I detector onboard Chandra and yielded data of high spatial and temporal resolution, together with spectral information. Mars is clearly detected as an almost fully illuminated disk, with an indication of limb brightening at the sunward side, accompanied by some fading on the opposite side. The morphology and the X-ray luminosity of ~4 MW are fully consistent with fluorescent scattering of solar X-rays in the upper Mars atmosphere. The X-ray spectrum is dominated by a single narrow emission line, which is most likely caused by O-K_alpha fluorescence. No evidence for temporal variability is found. This is in agreement with the solar X-ray flux, which was almost constant during the observation. In addition to the X-ray fluorescence, there is evidence for an additional source of X-ray emission, indicated by a faint X-ray halo which can be traced to about three Mars radii, and by an additional component in the X-ray spectrum of Mars, which has a similar spectral shape as the halo. Within the available limited statistics, the spectrum of this component can be characterized by 0.2 keV thermal bremsstrahlung emission. This is indicative of charge exchange interactions between highly charged heavy ions in the solar wind and exospheric hydrogen and oxygen around Mars. Although the observation was performed at the onset of a global dust storm, no evidence for dust-related X-ray emission was found.Comment: 11 pages, 16 figure

Multiwavelength appearance of Vela Jr.: Is it up to expectations?

Vela Jr. is one of the youngest and likely nearest among the known galactic supernova remnants (SNRs). Discovered in 1997 it has been studied since then at quite a few wavelengths, that spread over almost 20 decades in energy. Here we present and discuss Vela Jr. properties revealed by these multiwavelength observations, and confront them with the SNR model expectations. Questions that remained unanswered at the time of publication of the paper of Iyudin et al. (2005), e.g. what is the nature of the SNR's proposed central compact source CXOU J085201.4-461753, and why is the ISM absorption column density apparently associated with RX J0852.0-4622 much greater than the typical column of the Vela SNR, can be addressed using the latest radio and X-ray observations of Vela Jr.. These, and other related questions are addressed in the following.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in ESA SP-622, Proceedings of the 6th INTEGRAL Workshop held in Moscow, Russia, July 02-08, 200

Non-thermal processes in coronae and beyond

This contribution summarizes the splinter session "Non-thermal processes in coronae and beyond" held at the Cool Stars 17 workshop in Barcelona in 2012. It covers new developments in high energy non-thermal effects in the Earth's exosphere, solar and stellar flares, the diffuse emission in star forming regions and reviews the state and the challenges of the underlying atomic databases.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the Cool Stars 17 worksho

On the soft X-ray emission of M82

We present a spatial analysis of the soft X-ray and H{\alpha} emissions from the outflow of the starburst galaxy M82. We find that the two emissions are tightly correlated on various scales. The O VII triplet of M82, as resolved by X-ray grating observations of XMM-Newton, is dominated by the forbidden line, inconsistent with the thermal prediction. The O VII triplet also shows some spatial variations. We discuss three possible explanations for the observed O VII triplet, including the charge exchange at interfaces between the hot outflow and neutral cool gas, a collisional non-equilibrium-ionization recombining plasma, and resonance scattering.Comment: 4 pages, published in Astronomical Notes, for "Charge exchange in the Universe" workshop, Paris 201

AGN in the XMM-Newton first-light image as probes for the interstellar medium in the LMC

The XMM-Newton first-light image revealed X-ray point sources which show heavily absorbed power-law spectra. The spectral indices and the probable identification of a radio counterpart for the brightest source suggest AGN shining through the interstellar gas of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The column densities derived from the X-ray spectra in combination with HI measurements will allow to draw conclusions on HI to H_2 ratios in the LMC and compare these with values found for the galactic plane.Comment: 4 pages, LaTex, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A Letter