Related papers: X-rays, clumping and stellar wind structures
Compression of the stellar winds from rapidly rotating hot stars is described by the wind compression model. However, it was also shown that rapid rotation leads to rotational distortion of the stellar surface, resulting in the appearance…
X-ray emission from stars much more massive than the Sun was discovered only 35 years ago. Such stars drive fast stellar winds where shocks can develop, and it is commonly assumed that the X-rays emerge from the shock-heated plasma. Many…
Massive black holes at the centers of galaxies can launch powerful wide-angle winds that, if sustained over time, can unbind the gas from the stellar bulges of galaxies. These winds may be responsible for the observed scaling relation…
Circumstellar disks play an important role in many stages of the evolution of stars. However, it is only possible to directly image circumstellar disks for a few of the nearest stars. For massive stars, the situation is even more difficult,…
In this paper we summarize some aspects of the wind accretion theory in high mass X-ray binaries hosting a magnetic neutron star and a supergiant companion. In particular, we concentrate on the different types of interaction between the…
In the last decade, high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy has revolutionized our understanding of the role of accretion disk winds in black hole X-ray binaries. Here I present a brief review of the state of wind studies in black hole X-ray…
A mysterious X-ray-emitting object has been detected moving away from the high-mass gamma-ray binary PSR B1259-63, which contains a non-accreting pulsar and a Be star whose winds collide forming a complex interaction structure. Given the…
Star-forming regions have been the targets of X-ray observations since the dawn of satellite X-ray astronomy. The increase in sensitivity and/or spatial resolution offered by XMM-Newton and Chandra allows a dramatic improvement, both…
Clumping in the winds of massive stars may significantly reduce empirical mass-loss rates, and which in turn may have a large impact on our understanding of massive star evolution. Here, we investigate wind-clumping through the linear…
Massive, early-type stars deposit energy and momentum in the interstellar medium through dense, supersonic winds. These objects are one of the most important sources of ionising radiation and chemical enrichment in the Galaxy. The physical…
In the last eight years, the Chandra and XMM-Newton satellites changed significantly our view of X-ray clusters of galaxies. In particular, several complex phenomena have been directly observed: interactions between cluster galaxies and the…
Massive young star clusters contain dozens or hundreds of massive stars that inject mechanical energy in the form of winds and supernova explosions, producing an outflow which expands into their surrounding medium, shocking it and forming…
Magnetic storms on stars manifest as remarkable, randomly occurring changes of the luminosity over durations that are tiny in comparison to the normal evolution of stars. These stellar flares are bursts of electromagnetic radiation from…
Clusters of galaxies are used in a variety of ways to do cosmology. Some of them are presented here. Their X-ray emitting gas allows us to determine the baryon fraction, dark matter distribution and the matter density $\Omega_{m}$ of the…
The winds of low-mass stars carry away angular momentum and impact the atmospheres of surrounding planets. Determining the properties of these winds is necessary to understand the mass-loss history of the star and the evolution of…
Our understanding of massive star evolution is in flux, due to recent upheavals in our view of mass loss, and observations of a high binary fraction among O-type stars. Mass-loss rates for standard metallicity-dependent winds of hot stars…
I discuss the empirical properties of diffuse X-ray emitting gas in the halos of both nearby starburst galaxies and normal spiral galaxies, based on high resolution X-ray spectral imaging with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Diffuse thermal…
We discuss the basic physics of hot-star winds and we provide mass-loss rates for (very) massive stars. Whilst the emphasis is on theoretical concepts and line-force modelling, we also discuss the current state of observations and empirical…
The chemical enrichment of the Universe; the mass spectrum of planetary nebulae, white dwarfs and gravitational wave progenitors; the frequency distribution of Type I and II supernovae; the fate of exoplanets ... a multitude of phenomena…
Linear spectropolarimetry is a powerful tool to probe circumstellar structures on spatial scales that cannot yet be achieved through direct imaging. In this review I discuss the role that emission-line polarimetry can play in constraining…