2009/07/28 by P. Bonfini, Paolo Bonfini, Despina Hatzidimitriou +4
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Context (archaeology) #Galaxy #Geography #Local Group #Milky Way #Physics #Spectroscopy #Spiral galaxy #Stars #Telescope #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/200912508
Accepted for publication by Astronomy & Astrophysics (7 pages, 8 figures, and 2 tables)
arxiv created 2009/07/28 · openalex publication_date 2009/09/08 · arxiv updated 2015/05/13 · openalex created_date 2019/06/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
<i>Context. <i/>A recent survey of the Local Group spiral galaxy M 31 with XMM-Newton yielded a large number of X-ray sources.<i>Aims. <i/>This is the second in a series of papers with the aim of identifying the optical counterparts of these X-ray sources.<i>Methods. <i/>We have obtained optical spectra for 21 bright optical counterparts of 20 X-ray sources in the direction of M 31, using the 1.3-m Skinakas telescope in Crete, Greece.<i>Results. <i/>For 17 of the 20 X-ray sources, we have identified the optical counterpart as a normal late type star (of type F or later) in the foreground (i.e. in the Milky Way). For two more sources, there were two possible optical counterparts, in each case, while two more objects have X-ray properties that are not compatible with the spectral characteristics of late type non-flaring stars.