2005/09/15 by Thomas J. Maccarone, Arunav Kundu, Stephen E. Zepf +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Dwarf galaxy #Dwarf spheroidal galaxy #Galaxy #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Interacting galaxy #Milky Way #Physics #Population #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1745-3933.2005.00106.x
published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.Lett. 364 (2005) 61 · 5 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables, accepted to MNRAS Letters
arxiv created 2005/09/15 · openalex publication_date 2005/10/19 · arxiv updated 2015/06/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract We report the results of a deep Chandra survey of the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy. We find five X-ray sources with LX of at least 6 × 1033 ergs−1 with optical counterparts establishing them as members of Sculptor. These X-ray luminosities indicate that these sources are X-ray binaries, as no other known class of Galactic point sources can reach 0.5–8 keV luminosities this high. Finding these systems proves definitively that such objects can exist in an old stellar population without stellar collisions. Three of these objects have highly evolved optical counterparts (giants or horizontal branch stars), as do three other sources whose X-ray luminosities are in the range which includes both quiescent low-mass X-ray binaries and the brightest magnetic cataclysmic variables. We predict that large area surveys of the Milky Way should also turn up large numbers of quiescent X-ray binaries.