HEAD 2003 Meeting
Session 17. X-ray Binaries III
Poster, Sunday-Wednesday, March 23, 2003, Duration of Meeting

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[17.19] Chandra reveals faint X-ray sources in M15

D.C. Hannikainen (University of Helsinki, Finland), P.A. Charles (University of Southampton, UK), L. van Zyl (Keele University, UK)

The Galactic globular cluster M15 is renowned for housing the high luminosity X-ray source X2127+119 which has been identified with by far the most luminous optical counterpart (AC211) of any galactic low-mass X-ray binary. X2127+119 was classified an Accretion Disk Corona object, and yet it also exhibits Type 1 X-ray bursts. This was explained when ACIS (White and Angelini ApJ 561, L101) revealed that there are two bright X-ray sources, AC211 and (2.7 arcseconds away) X-2, which is presumed to be responsible for the burst.

Here we present Chandra HRC-I images of M15 where the two central sources are clearly visible. In addition, the high spatial resolution of the HRC allows us to show that there are numerous low-luminosity sources lurking in the core, one of which we have identified with a dwarf nova in archival HST images and one which has been associated with a planetary nebula.



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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#2
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.