2017/10/19 by Sofia-Paraskevi Moschou, Jeremy J. Drake, Ofer Cohen +2
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa9520
10 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
arxiv created 2017/10/19 · arxiv updated 2017/12/13
We explore the scenario of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) being the cause of the observed continuous X-ray absorption of the August 30 1997 superflare on the eclipsing binary Algol (the Demon Star). The temporal decay of the absorption is consistent with absorption by a CME undergoing self-similar evolution with uniform expansion velocity. We investigate the kinematic and energetic properties of the CME using the ice-cream cone model for its three-dimensional structure in combination with the observed profile of the hydrogen column density decline with time. Different physically justified length scales were used that allowed us to estimate lower and upper limits of the possible CME characteristics. Further consideration of the maximum available magnetic energy in starspots leads us to quantify its mass as likely lying in the range 2× 1021-2× 1022 g and kinetic energy in the range 7× 1035-3× 1038 erg. The results are in reasonable agreement with extrapolated relations between flare X-ray fluence and CME mass and kinetic energy derived for solar CMEs.