The discovery of an outburst and pulsed X-ray flux from SMC X-2 using the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer
- Author(s)
- Robin H D Corbet, Francis E Marshall, M J Coe, Silas Laycock, Gerald Handler
- Abstract
Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) All-Sky Monitor observations of SMC X-2 show that the source experienced an outburst in 2000 January-April reaching a peak luminosity of greater than ~1038 ergs s-1. RXTE Proportional Counter Array observations during this outburst reveal the presence of pulsations with a 2.37 s period. However, optical photometry of the optical counterpart shows that the source was still significantly fainter than it was more than a half a year after the outburst in the 1970s when SMC X-2 was discovered.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Astrophysics
- External organisation(s)
- Universities Space Research Association, National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), University of Southampton, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
- Journal
- The Astrophysical Journal: an international review of astronomy and astronomical physics
- Volume
- 548
- ISSN
- 0004-637X
- Publication date
- 2001
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103003 Astronomy
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/df282cfa-e634-4393-8216-342a2530c211