2004/01/26 by W. R. T. Edge, M. J. Coe, J. L. Galache +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07606.x
published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 349 (2004) 1361 · Paper has been accepted by MNRAS
arxiv created 2004/01/26 · openalex publication_date 2004/04/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report on the analysis of eight years of Massive Compact Halo Objects (MACHO) data for the source RX J0520.5–6932. A regular period of 24.4 d has been confirmed; however, this is manifest almost entirely in the red part of the spectrum. A major outburst, lasting approximately 200 d, was observed, which increased the apparent brightness of the object by approximately 0.15 mag without significantly altering its V–R colour index. This outburst was also seen in X-ray data. The evidence from this analysis points to the identification of this object as a Be/X-ray binary with a periodically variable circumstellar disc and a very early optical counterpart.