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K.V. Getman (Penn State), COUP* Collaboration
The Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project (COUP) observation of the Orion Nebula provides the most detailed and comprehensive information to date concerning the X-ray emission and magnetic activity in pre-main sequence stars (PMS). Virtually the entire Initial Mass Function down to the substellar limit is detected with many counts. Some early scientific results obtained by the COUP Team will be presented including: - The mass-stratified stellar X-ray luminosity function clearly shows monotonic evolution from 1 Myr to 10 Gyr - A number of new binaries are resolved at arcsecond resolution - We confirm that heavily accreting stars are less X-ray luminous than non-accreting stars - Powerful flares are extremely common in all classes of PMS stars. Most show the hard-spectrum rapid rise and cooling decay seen in solar magnetic reconnection events - Heavily absorbed sources sometimes show the 6.4 keV emission line from fluorescence by cold iron atoms in the embedded environment - X-rays from Orion intermediate-mass BA stars is consistent with emission from close lower mass companions.
*The COUP Team is a collaboration of 32 scientists led by Eric Feigelson (Penn State) with nine science group leaders: K. Getman, N. Grosso, R. Harnden, M. McCaughrean, G. Micela, T. Montmerle, F. Palla, T. Preibisch and K. Stassun. COUP is supported by Chandra grant SAO GO3-4009A.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #3
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.