XMM-Newton survey of two upper Scorpius regions

¹ Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche ed Astronomiche, Sezione di Astronomia, Università di Palermo, Piazza del Parlamento 1, 90134 Palermo, Italy e-mail: [argi;peres]@astropa.unipa.it
² Astrophysics Division – Research and Science Support Department of ESA, Postbus 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands e-mail: Fabio.Favata@rssd.esa.int
³ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Piazza del Parlamento 1, 90134 Palermo, Italy e-mail: [ettoref;maggio;giusi;sciorti]@astropa.unipa.it

Received: 23 May 2006
Accepted: 11 July 2006

Abstract

Aims.We studied X-ray emission from young stars by analyzing the deep XMM-Newton observations of two regions of the Upper Scorpius association with an age of 5 Myr.

Methods.Based on near infrared and optical photometry we identified 22 Upper Scorpius photometric members among the 224 detected X-ray sources. We derived coronal properties of Upper Scorpius stars by performing X-ray spectral and timing analyses. The study of four strong and isolated stellar flares allowed us to derive the length of the flaring loops.

Results.Among the 22 Upper Scorpius stars, 13 were identified as Upper Scorpius photometric members for the first time. The sample includes 7 weak-line T Tauri stars and 1 classical T Tauri star, while the nature of the remaining sources is unknown. Except for the intermediate mass star HD 142578, all the detected USco sources are low-mass stars of spectral types ranging from G to late M. The X-ray emission spectrum of the most intense Upper Scorpius sources indicates metal depleted plasma with temperature of ~10 MK, resembling the typical coronal emission of active main sequence stars. At least 59% of the detected members of the association have variable X-ray emission, and the flaring coronal structures appear shorter than or comparable to the stellar radii already at the Upper Scorpius age. We also found indications of increasing plasma metallicity (up to a factor 20) during strong flares. We identified a new galaxy cluster among the 224 X-ray source detected: the X-ray spectrum of its intra cluster medium indicates a redshift of ~0.41 ± 0.02.