X-ray spectroscopy of early-type stars: The present and the future


G. Rauw (1), Y. Naze (2), and L.M. Oskinova (3)

(1) Institute of Astrophysics & Geophysics, University of Liege, Belgium
(2) Astrophysics, University of Potsdam, Germany

XMM-Newton and Chandra have boosted our knowledge about the X-ray emission of early-type stars (spectral type OB and Wolf-rayet). However, there are still a number of open questions that need to be addressed in order to fully understand the X-ray spectra of these objects. Many of these issues require high-resolution spectroscopy or monitoring of a sample of massive stars. Given the moderate X-ray brightness of these targets, rather long exposure times are needed to achieve these goals. In this contribution, we review our current knowledge in this field and present some hot topics that could ideally be addressed with XMM-Newton over the next decade.

Reference: Astronomische Nachrichten/AN 329, 222
Status: Manuscript has been accepted

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Comments: Proceedings of the conference "XMM-Newton: The Next Decade" held in Villafranca del Castillo (Spain), 4-6 June 2007

Email: rauw@astro.ulg.ac.be