Photometry and spectroscopy of the luminous red nova PSNJ14021678+5426205 in the galaxy M101

We present the results of the study of a red nova from the observations carried out with the Russian 6-m telescope (BTA) along with other telescopes of SAO RAS and SAI MSU. To investigate the nova progenitor,we used the data from the Digital Sky Survey and amateur photos available on the Internet. In the period between April 1993 and July 2014, the brightness of the progenitor gradually increased by \(2_ \cdot ^m 2\) in the V-band. At the peak of the first outburst in mid-November 2014, the star reached an absolute visual magnitude of \(- 12_ \cdot ^m 75\) but was discovered later, in February 2015, in a repeated outburst at the magnitude of \(- 11_ \cdot ^m 65\). The amplitude of the outburst was minimum among the red novae, only \(5_ \cdot ^m 6\) in V-band. The Hα emission line and the background of a cool supergiant continuum with gradually decreasing surface temperature were observed in the spectra. Such process is typical for red novae, although the object under study showed extreme parameters: maximum luminosity, maximum outburst duration, minimum outburst amplitude, unusual shape of the light curve. This event is interpreted as a massive OB star system components’merging accompanied by formation of a common envelope and then the expansion of this envelope with minimal energy losses.     

Variability of hot supergiant IRAS 19336-0400 in the early phase of planetary nebula ionization

We present photoelectric and spectral observations of a hot candidate proto-planetary nebula—early B-type supergiant with emission lines in spectrum—IRAS 19336-0400. The light and color curves display fast irregular brightness variations with maximum amplitudes \(\Delta V = 0_ \cdot ^m 30\), \(\Delta B = 0_ \cdot ^m 35\), \(\Delta U = 0_ \cdot ^m 40\) and color-brightness correlations. By the variability characteristics IRAS 19336-0400 appears similar to other hot proto-planetary nebulae. Based on low-resolution spectra in the range λ4000–7500 Å we have derived absolute intensities of the emission lines Hα, Hβ, Hγ, [S II], [N II], physical conditions in gaseous nebula: n _e = 10⁴ cm^?3, T _e = 7000 ± 1000 K. The emission line Hα, Hβ equivalent widths are found to be considerably variable and related to light changes. By UBV-photometry and spectroscopy the color excess has been estimated: E _B-V = 0.50–0.54. Joint photometric and spectral data analysis allows us to assume that the star variability is caused by stellar wind variations.     

Optical brightness variability of LSI+61°303: Improving the photometric period

The U BV observations of the variable radio source LSI+61°303 carried out at the Crimean Station of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute in 1989–1990 and 1999–2002 are presented. We constructed a combined light curve of the star spanning ～6400 days from our and published data. Slow brightness variability with an amplitude of \( \sim 0^m .1\) was detected. Using the entire combined series, we searched for a periodicity in a frequency range close to the radio period \(P = 26^d .5\). The optical period was found to be exactly equal to the radio period. The shape and amplitude of the mean curves constructed with the radio period change from V to U: the detected double wave shows up most clearly in the U band.     

Broad-band spectral evolution and temporal variability of IGR J17091-3624 during its 2016 outburst: <Emphasis Type="Italic">SWIFT</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">NuSTAR</Emphasis> results

We report on the 2016 outburst of the transient Galactic Black Hole candidate IGR J17091-3624 based on the observation campaign carried out with SWIFT and NuSTAR. The outburst profile, as observed with SWIFT-XRT, shows a typical ‘q’-shape in the Hardness Intensity Diagram (HID). Based on the spectral and temporal evolution of the different parameters, we are able to identify all the spectral states in the q-profile of HID and the Hardness-RMS diagram (HRD). Both XRT and NuSTAR observations show an evolution of low frequency Quasi periodic oscillations (QPOs) during the low hard and hard intermediate states of the outburst rising phase. We also find mHz QPOs along-with distinct coherent class variabilities (heartbeat oscillations) with different timescales, similar to the \(\rho \)-class (observed in GRS 1915+105). Phenomenological modelling of the broad-band XRT and NuSTAR spectra also reveals the evolution of high energy cut-off and presence of reflection from ionized material during the rising phase of the outburst. Further, we conduct the modelling of X-ray spectra of SWIFT and NuSTAR in 0.5–79 keV to understand the accretion flow dynamics based on two component flow model. From this modelling, we constrain the mass of the source to be in the range of \(10.62\mbox{--}12.33~\mbox{M}_{\odot }\) with 90% confidence, which is consistent with earlier findings.     

Pulse phase-resolved analysis of SMC X-3 during its 2016–2017 super-Eddington outburst

The Be X-ray pulsar SMC X-3 underwent an extra long and ultraluminous giant outburst from 2016 August to 2017 March. The peak X-ray luminosity is up to \(\sim10^{39}~\mbox{erg/s}\), suggesting a mildly super-Eddington accretion onto the strongly magnetized neutron star. It therefore bridges the gap between the Galactic Be/X-ray binaries (\(L_{\mathrm{X}}^{\mathrm{peak}} \leq10^{38}~\mbox{erg/s}\)) and the ultraluminous X-ray pulsars (\(L_{\mathrm{X}}^{\mathrm{peak}} \geq10^{40}~\mbox{erg/s}\)) found in nearby galaxies. A number of observations were carried out to observe the outburst. In this paper, we perform a comprehensive phase-resolved analysis on the high quality data obtained with the Nustar and XMM-Newton, which were observed at a high and intermediate luminosity levels. In order to get a better understanding on the evolution of the whole extreme burst, we take the Swift results at the low luminosity state into account as well. At the early stage of outburst, the source shows a double-peak pulse profile, the second main peak approaches the first one and merges into the single peak at the low luminosity. The second main peak vanishes beyond 20 keV, and its radiation becomes much softer than that of the first main peak. The line widths of fluorescent iron line vary dramatically with phases, indicating a complicated geometry of accretion flows. In contrast to the case at low luminosity, the pulse fraction increases with the photon energy. The significant small pulse fraction detected below 1 keV can be interpreted as the existence of an additional thermal component located at far away from the central neutron star.     

A comparative study of geomagnetic storms for solar cycles 23 and 24

The aim of this paper is to investigate the association of the geomagnetic storms with the magnitude of interplanetary magnetic field IMF (B), solar wind speed (V), product of IMF and wind speed (\(V \cdot B)\), Ap index and solar wind plasma density (\(n_{\mathrm{p}})\) for solar cycles 23 and 24. A Chree analysis by the superposed epoch method has been done for the study. The results of the present analysis showed that \(V \cdot B\) is more geoeffective when compared to V or B alone. Further the high and equal anti-correlation coefficient is found between Dst and Ap index (? 0.7) for both the solar cycles. We have also discussed the relationship between solar wind plasma density (\(n_{\mathrm{p}})\) and Dst and found that both these parameters are weakly correlated with each other. We have found that the occurrence of geomagnetic storms happens on the same day when IMF, V, Ap and \(V \cdot B\) reach their maximum value while 1 day time lag is noticed in case of solar wind plasma density with few exceptions. The study of geomagnetic storms with various solar-interplanetary parameters is useful for the study of space weather phenomenon.     

Photometric and spectral studies of the eclipsing polar CRTS CSS081231 J071126+440405

We present the results of the study of the eclipsing polar CRTS CSS081231 J071126+440405. Photometric observations allowed us to refine the orbital period of the system \(P_ \circ = 0_ \cdot ^d 0.08137673\). Considerable changes in the appearance of the object’s spectra have occurred over the period of September 20–21, 2001: the slope of the continuum changed from “red” to “blue”, and the variability of the line profiles over the duration of the orbital period has also changed. Doppler maps have shown a shift of the emission line-forming region along the accretion stream closer to the white dwarf. We measured the duration of the eclipse of the system and imposed constraints on the inclination angle \(78_ \cdot ^ \circ 7 < i < 79_ \cdot ^ \circ 3\). The derived radial velocity amplitude was used to obtain the basic parameters of the system: M₁ = 0.86 ± 0.08M_⊙, M₂ = 0.18 ± 0.02 M_⊙, q = 0.21 ± 0.01, R_L2 = 0.20 ± 0.03 R_⊙, A = 0.80 ± 0.03 R_⊙. The spectra of the object exhibit cyclotron harmonics. Their comparison with model spectra allowed us to determine the parameters of the accretion column: B = 31–34 MG, T_e = 10–12 keV, θ = 80–90°, and Λ = 10⁵.     

Discovery of GeV gamma-ray emission from the LMC B0443-6657 with the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Fermi</Emphasis> Large Area Telescope

We report the discovery of gamma-ray detection from the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) B0443-6657 using the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. LMC B0443-6657 is a flat-spectrum radio source, possibly associated with a supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC N4). Employing the LAT data of 8 years, our results show a significant excess (\(>9.4\sigma \)) of gamma rays in the range of 0.2–100 GeV above the gamma-ray background. A power-law function is found to adequately describe the 0.2–\(100\mbox{ GeV}\)\(\gamma \)-ray spectrum, which yields a photon flux of \(3.27\pm 0.53\ \text{photon}\,\mbox{cm}^{2}\,\mbox{s}^{-1}\) with a photon index of \(2.35\pm 0.11\), corresponding to an isotropic gamma-ray luminosity of \(5.3\times 10^{40}~\mbox{erg}\,\mbox{s}^{-1}\). The hadronic model predicts a low X-ray and TeV flux while the leptonic model predicts an observable flux in these two energy bands. The follow-up observations of the LMC B0443-6657 in X-ray or TeV band would distinguish the radiation models of gamma rays from this region.     

On the Evolutionary State of High-Latitude Variable V534 Lyr

Based on the high spectral resolution monitoring conducted at the 6-m BTA telescope, we study the optical spectrum of the high-latitude variable V534 Lyr. Heliocentric radial velocities V_r corresponding to the positions of all metal absorption components, as well as the Na I D and Hα lines were measured during all the observational sets. The analysis of the velocity field examining the lines of various nature revealed a low-amplitude variability of V_r based on the lines with a high excitation potential, which are formed in deep layers of the stellar atmosphere, and allowed to estimate the systemic velocity of V_sys ≈ ?125 kms^?1 (V_lsr ≈ ?105 kms^?1). The distance estimate of d ≈ 6 kpc for the star leads to its absolute magnitude of \(M_V \approx - 5_ \cdot ^m 3\), what corresponds to the spectral classification. The previously undetected spectral phenomenon was revealed for this star: at certain times a splitting of the profiles of low-excited absorptions is observed, reaching ΔV_r = 20–50 kms^?1. A combination of the parameters: reduced metallicity [Met/H]_⊙ = ?0.28, high nitrogen abundance [N/Fe] = +1.10, large spatial velocity, high luminosity, a strong variability of the emission-absorption profiles of HI lines, splitting of metal absorptions at different times of observations and the variability of the velocity field in the atmosphere allow to classify V534 Lyr as a pulsating star in the thick disk of our Galaxy.     

The first observation of AX J1749.1-2733 in a bright X-ray state—Another fast transient revealed by INTEGRAL

An intense outburst of hard radiation (with a peak flux of ～50 mCrab) was detected from the X-ray transient AX J1749.1-2733 by the IBIS/ISGRI gamma-ray telescope onboard the INTEGRAL observatory when the Galactic center field was monitored on September 8–10, 2003. Previously, this source had never been observed in a bright X-ray state. During the outburst, the source’s radiation spectrum was gently sloping and hard (extended to ～100 keV), followed a power law in the standard X-ray energy range, and had an exponential cutoff above 40–50 keV. The spectral hardness decreased with increasing flux. These and other properties described here and the shortness of the outburst (<2 days) allow the source to be attributed to the group of fast X-ray transients many representatives of which have an early O-B supergiant as their optical counterpart. Possible causes of the outbursts of fast transients are discussed. We show that accretion from the supergiant’s stellar wind should have led to intense persistent radiation from transients. The absence of radiation can be explained by the ejection of accreting matter from the system (propeller effect) during its contact with the magnetosphere of a rapidly rotating neutron star. Transient outbursts could originate in sources of this type if the spin period of their neutron star P _s differed only slightly from the critical period P _s ^* ? 3 s at which the propeller effect is still possible. The outburst is triggered by an insignificant rise in the local stellar wind density, by a factor of (P _s ^* /P _s)^7/3. The entire outburst profile cannot be explained by an individual inhomogeneity in the wind, but is the reflection of a long-term (～2 days for AX J1749.1-2733) change in the rate of wind outflow from the supergiant’s surface facing the compact source. The rate of wind outflow could be enhanced through X-ray heating of the supergiant’s surface.     

A photometric study of faint galaxies in the field of GRB 000926

We present our B, V, R_c, and I_c observations of a \(3'.6 \times 3'\) field centered on the host galaxy of GRB 000926 (α_2000.0=17^h04^m11^s, \(\delta _{2000.0} = + 51^ \circ 47'9\mathop .\limits^{''} 8\)). The observations were carried out on the 6-m Special Astrophysical Observatory telescope using the SCORPIO instrument. The catalog of galaxies detected in this field includes 264 objects for which the signal-to-noise ratio is larger than 5 in each photometric band. The following limiting magnitudes in the catalog correspond to this limitation: 26.6 (B), 25.7 (V), 25.8 (R), and 24.5 (I). The differential galaxy counts are in good agreement with previously published CCD observations of deep fields. We estimated the photometric redshifts for all of the cataloged objects and studied the color variations of the galaxies with z. For luminous spiral galaxies with M(B)z～1.     

Measurement of coronal properties of Seyfert galaxies from NuSTAR’s hard X-ray spectrum

Precise measurement of the coronal properties of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) requires the availability of high signal-to-noise ratio data covering a wide range of X-ray energies. The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) which is highly sensitive to earlier missions in its operational energy range of 3–79 keV, allows us to arrive at precise estimates of the coronal parameters such as cut-off energy (\(E_\mathrm{cut}\)), coronal temperature (\(\textit{kT}_e\)) and geometry of the corona at least for sources that have \(E_\mathrm{cut}\) within the energy range of NuSTAR. In this paper, we present our preliminary results on the spectral analysis of two Seyfert galaxies namely 3C 120 and NGC 4151 using NuSTAR observations in the 3–79 keV band. We investigated the continuum and coronal parameters, the photon index \(\Gamma \), \(E_\mathrm{cut}\) and \(\textit{kT}_{e}\). By fitting the X-ray spectrum of 3C 120 and NGC 4151 with a simple phenomenological model, we found that both the sources showed a clear cut-off in their spectrum.     

Spatial Distribution of Element Abundances and Ionization States in Solar Energetic-Particle Events

We have studied the spatial and temporal distribution of abundances of chemical elements in large “gradual” solar energetic-particle (SEP) events, and especially the source plasma temperatures, derived from those abundances, using measurements from the Wind and Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft, widely separated in solar longitude. A power-law relationship between abundance enhancements and mass-to-charge ratios [\(A/Q\)] of the ions can be used to determine \(Q\)-values and source plasma temperatures at remote spacecraft with instruments that were not designed for charge-state measurements. We search for possible source variations along the accelerating shock wave, finding one clear case where the accelerating shock wave appears to dispatch ions from \(3.2\pm 0.8~\mbox{MK}\) plasma toward one spacecraft and those from \(1.6\pm 0.2~\mbox{MK}\) plasma toward another, 116^° away. The difference persists for three days and then fades away. Three other SEP events show less-extreme variation in source temperatures at different spacecraft, in one case observed over 222^° in longitude. This initial study shows how the power-law relation between abundance enhancements and ion \(A/Q\)-values provides a new technique to determine \(Q\) and plasma temperatures in the seed population of SEP ions over a broad region of space using remote spacecraft with instruments that were not originally designed for measurements of ionization states.     

The X-ray bursts within the 2010 outburst of the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar SAX J1748.9-2021

With the observations from Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, we search and study the X-ray bursts of accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar SAX J1748.9-2021 during its 2010 outburst. We find 13 X-ray bursts, including 12 standard type-I X-ray bursts and an irregular X-ray burst which lacks cooling tail. During the outburst, the persistent emission occurred at \(\sim (1\mbox{--}5)\%{\dot{\mathrm{M}}_{\mathrm{Edd}}}\). We use a combination model of a blackbody (BB), a powerlaw, and a line component to fit the persistent emission spectra. Another BB is added into the combination model to account for the emission of the X-ray bursts due to the thermonuclear burning on the surface of the neutron star. Finally, we modify the combination model with a multiplicative factor \(f_{\mathrm{a}}\), plus a BB to fit the spectra during the X-ray bursts. It is found that the \(f_{\mathrm{a}}\) is inversely correlated with the burst flux in some cases. Our analysis suggests that the ignition depth of the irregular X-ray burst is obviously smaller than those of the type-I X-ray bursts. We argue that the detected type-I X-ray bursts originate from helium-rich or pure-helium environment, while the irregular X-ray burst originates from the thermonuclear flash in a shallow ocean.     

Further photometric observations of the X-ray binary A0535+26/V725 Tau: A new activity cycle

We performed new photoelectric U BV observations of the X-ray binary A0535+26 at the Crimean Station of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute in 1998–2003. After the brightness stabilized at a minimum of about 500 days in duration, a new brightness rise steeper than that observed previously began: the brightness increased over two seasons of observations by a total amplitude of \(0\mathop .\limits^m 5\). The physical parameters (T _e , n _e ) of the additional emission that caused this brightening match, within the error limits, were obtained from the averaged over 15 years, data, that include both the ascending and descending branches of the light curve. We found a delay of the variations in the Hα line relative to the continuum, which is no more than one year.     

Probing Individual Sources during Reionization and Cosmic Dawn using Square Kilometre Array HI 21-cm Observations

Detection of individual luminous sources during the reionization epoch and cosmic dawn through their signatures in the HI 21-cm signal is one of the direct approaches to probe the epoch. Here, we summarize our previous works on this and present preliminary results on the prospects of detecting such sources using the SKA1-low experiment. We first discuss the expected HI 21-cm signal around luminous sources at different stages of reionization and cosmic dawn. We then introduce two visibility based estimators for detecting such signals: one based on the matched filtering technique and the other relies on simply combing the visibility signal from different baselines and frequency channels. We find that the SKA1-low should be able to detect ionized bubbles of radius \(R_{\mathrm {b}} \gtrsim 10\) Mpc with ～100 h of observations at redshift z～8 provided that the mean outside neutral hydrogen fraction \(\mathrm {x}_{\text {HI}} \gtrsim 0.5\). We also investigate the possibility of detecting HII regions around known bright QSOs such as around ULASJ1120+0641 discovered by Mortlock et al. (Nature 474, 7353 (2011)). We find that a 5σ detection is possible with 600 h of SKA1-low observations if the QSO age and the outside x_HI are at least ～2×10⁷ Myr and ～0.2 respectively. Finally, we investigate the possibility of detecting the very first X-ray and Ly- α sources during the cosmic dawn. We consider mini-QSOs like sources which emits in X-ray frequency band. We find that with a total ～ 1000 h of observations, SKA1-low should be able to detect those sources individually with a ～ 9σ significance at redshift z=15. We summarize how the SNR changes with various parameters related to the source properties.     

Variability of the period of the star DU Monocerotis,an RR Lyrae variable with the Blazhko effect

In 2012–2014 we obtained 3641 CCD frames of the fields of the RR Lyrae (AB subtype, P = 0.583 days) variable DU Mon with BV I _c filters using the 76-cm telescope of the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) and the 1-m telescopes of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT). Our observations confirmed the presence of the Blazhko effect that we suspected previously and allowed its period to be determined, \({P_{Bl}} = 60_ \cdot ^d52 \pm 0_ \cdot ^d03\). Using all of the available observations, we constructed an O–C diagram spanning a time interval of 86 years that revealed at least one abrupt change in the pulsation period (a decrease by 15.26 s).     

Analysis of a Failed Eclipse Plasma Ejection Using EUV Observations

The photometry of eclipse white-light (W-L) images showing a moving blob is interpreted for the first time together with observations from space with the PRoject for On Board Autonomy (PROBA-2) mission (ESA). An off-limb event seen with great details in W-L was analyzed with the SWAP imager (Sun Watcher using Active pixel system detector and image Processing) working in the EUV near 174 Å. It is an elongated plasma blob structure of 25 Mm diameter moving above the east limb with coronal loops under. Summed and co-aligned SWAP images are evaluated using a 20-h sequence, in addition to the 11 July, 2010 eclipse W-L images taken from several sites. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) recorded the event suggesting a magnetic reconnection near a high neutral point; accordingly, we also call it a magnetic plasmoid. The measured proper motion of the blob shows a velocity up to \(12~\mbox{km}\,\mbox{s}^{-1}\). Electron densities of the isolated condensation (cloud or blob or plasmoid) are photometrically evaluated. The typical value is \(10^{8}~\mbox{cm}^{-3}\) at \(r=1.7~\mathrm{R}_{\odot}\), superposed on a background corona of \(10^{7}~\mbox{cm}^{-3}\) density. The mass of the cloud near its maximum brightness is found to be \(1.6\times10^{13}\) g, which is typically \(0.6\times10^{-4}\) of the overall mass of the corona. From the extrapolated magnetic field the cloud evolves inside a rather broad open region but decelerates, after reaching its maximum brightness. The influence of such small events for supplying material to the ubiquitous slow wind is noticed. A precise evaluation of the EUV photometric data, after accurately removing the stray light, suggests an interpretation of the weak 174 Å radiation of the cloud as due to resonance scattering in the Fe IX/X lines.