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J.J. Drake, N.S. Brickhouse (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory), E.D. Feigelson (Pennsylvania State University), M. Guedel (Paul Scherrer Institute), J.M. Laming (Naval Research Laboratory), N.S. Schulz (Kavli MIT Center for Space Research)
Star and planet formation, the evolution of planetary atmospheres, magnetic dynamo processes at work in stellar interiors, the angular momentum evolution of stars, and the origin and acceleration of stellar winds and mass loss are all manifest in, or dependent on, the processes at work in the X-ray emitting outer atmospheres of stars. High energy phenomena in non-degenerate stars and protostars also offer prototypical examples of plasma and processes that occur on much larger scales in the more distant cosmic X-ray sources---from magnetic reconnection and flares illuminating accretion disks of black holes from active galactic nuclei down to X-ray binaries, to the radiatively-driven winds and outflows of these accretion disks, to the hot and tenuous optically-thin plasma of galactic interstellar media and clusters of galaxies.
Here we describe why Constellation-X will provide a leap forward in our understanding of High Energy Stellar Physics, from magnetic dynamos in stars and brown dwarfs, to stellar surface magnetic fields and coronal structure, flares and energy storage and release, the role of energetic processes in star and planet formation, and the processes at work in the winds of OB stars.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #4
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.