X-ray source

X-ray source, in astronomy, any of a class of cosmic objects that emit radiation at X-ray wavelength. Because the Earth’s atmosphere absorbs X rays very efficiently, X-ray telescopes and detectors must be carried high above it by spacecraft to observe objects that produce such electromagnetic radiation.

A brief treatment of astronomical X-ray sources follows. For full treatment, see Cosmos.

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Advances in instrumentation and improved observational techniques have led to the discovery of an increasing number of X-ray sources. By the late 20th century, thousands of these objects had been detected throughout the universe.

The Sun was the first celestial object determined to give off X rays; rocket-borne radiation counters measured X-ray emissions from its corona (outer atmosphere) in 1949. The Sun, however, is an intrinsically weak X-ray source, and it is prominent only because it is so close to the Earth. The unambiguous detection of X rays from other more distant ordinary stars was achieved 30 years later by the orbiting HEAO 2 satellite known as the Einstein Observatory. It detected more than 150 ordinary stars by the X-radiation from their coronas. The stars observed cover almost the entire range of star-types—main sequence, red giants, and white dwarfs. Most stars emit only an extremely small fraction of their energy in the form of X rays. Young, massive stars are the most powerful X-ray emitters. They usually occur in nebulas, and their hot coronal gases can expand to make a nebula itself a detectable X-ray source.

A more powerful type of X-ray source is a supernova remnant, the gaseous shell ejected during the violent explosion of a dying star. The first to be observed was the Crab Nebula, the remnant of a supernova explosion whose radiation reached the Earth in ad 1054. It is, however, a very atypical remnant because its X rays are synchrotron radiation produced by high-speed electrons from a central pulsar. The X-radiation from most other supernova remnants emanates instead from hot gas. The gases ejected by a supernova explosion are relatively cool, but as they sweep outward at a speed of several thousand kilometres per second they accumulate interstellar gas. The strong shock wave heats this gas to a temperature high enough for X-ray emission—namely, about 10,000,000 K.

The most powerful X-ray sources in the Milky Way Galaxy are certain binary stars. These so-called X-ray binaries have an X-ray output 1,000 times as great as the Sun’s output at all wavelengths. X-ray binaries account for most of the sources discovered during the initial years of X-ray astronomy, including Scorpius X-1. A typical X-ray binary source consists of a close double star system in which one member is a very compact object. This object may be a neutron star that contains approximately the mass of two Suns condensed into a sphere only about 20 km (12 mi) across, or alternatively an even more compact black hole, a collapsed star whose gravity is so strong that not even light can escape from it. As gas from the companion star falls toward the compact star, the latter swirls round into an accretion disk. Viscous processes in the disk convert the orbital energy of the gas into heat, and when sufficiently high temperatures are attained large amounts of X rays are emitted.

There are several types of X-ray binaries. In an X-ray pulsar, the gas is channeled to the poles of a neutron star and the radiation is given off as pulses in very regular periods. In objects known as bursters, a neutron star’s magnetic field suspends the gas until the accumulated weight crushes the field temporarily and the falling gas emits a sudden burst of X rays. A transient occurs in stellar pairs in which the orbit is elongated and gas is only transferred occasionally (i.e., when the component stars are closest together). Astronomers generally classify the compact object in an X-ray binary as a neutron star unless its calculated mass exceeds three solar masses. In such cases, they identify the object as a black hole. Two very strong black hole candidates are Cygnus X-1 (nine solar masses) and LMC X-3 (seven solar masses).

Nearby galaxies (e.g., the Andromeda Galaxy) are detected by the emission from constituent X-ray binaries. They are relatively weak sources compared to active galaxies, which fall into various categories such as radio galaxies, Seyfert galaxies, and quasars. These galactic types are all characterized by violent activity at their cores, usually explained as arising from an accretion disk of hot gases that surrounds a central black hole having a mass of about 1,000,000,000 Suns. The X-ray energy of these galaxies is highly variable. The quasar OX 169, for example, has been observed to vary substantially in X-ray output in less than two hours, implying that the region producing this radiation is less than two “light-hours” across (i.e., smaller than the solar system).

Other powerful extragalactic X-ray sources are galaxy clusters. The X rays from a cluster do not come from its member galaxies but rather from a pool of hot gas between them, which is kept within the cluster by the galaxies’ combined gravitational pull. The gas is typically at a temperature of 100,000,000 K, and it may have originated as hot gas ejected by numerous supernovas.

Finally, there is a diffuse background of X-radiation emanating from great distances and from all directions. Although it was discovered in 1962, its nature was not finally resolved until 2000. The background consists mainly of X rays from numerous active galaxies.