Results from DROXO IV. EXTraS discovery of an X-ray flare from the Class I protostar candidate ISO-Oph 85

Abstract

X-ray emission from Young Stellar Objects (YSOs) is crucial to understand star formation. A very limited amount of X-ray results is available for the protostellar (ClassI) phase. A systematic search of transient X-ray phenomena combined with a careful evaluation of the evolutionary stage offer a widely unexplored window to our understanding of YSOs X-ray properties. Within the EXTraS project, a search for transients and variability in the whole XMM-Newton archive, we discover transient X-ray emission consistent with ISO-Oph 85, a strongly embedded YSO in the rho Ophiuchi region, not detected in previous time-averaged X-ray studies. We extract an X-ray light curve for the flare and determine its spectral parameters from XMM-Newton/EPIC (European Photon Imaging Camera) data using quantile analysis. The X-ray flare ($2500s$), the only one detected in the XMM-Newton archive for ISO-Oph 85, has a luminosity of $Log{L}_X[erg/s]=31.1$ and a spectrum consistent with a highly-absorbed one-component thermal model ($N_H=1.0_{-0.5}^{+1.2}10^{23}c{m}^{-2}$, $kT=1.15_{-0.65}^{+2.35}keV)$. We set an upper limit of $Log{L}_X[erg/s]<29.5$ to the quiescent X-ray luminosity. We build a SED with IR to mm photometry drawn from literature and mid-IR Spitzer and sub-mm Herschel photometry analysed by us, and compare it with pre-computed models. The sub-mm emission peak in the Herschel data suggests that the object is a ClassI protostar. However, the Herschel/IR position offset is larger than for other YSOs in the region, leaving some doubt on the association. This is the first X-ray flare from a YSO recognised as a candidate ClassI YSO via the analysis of its complete SED. This work shows how the analysis of the whole SED is fundamental for the classification of YSOs, and how the X-ray source detection techniques we developed can open a new era in time-resolved analysis of the X-ray emission from stars.

10 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables Accepted for publication by Astronomy&Astrophysics

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• XMMPZCAT: A catalogue of photometric redshifts for X-ray sources
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• The EXTraS Project: Exploring the X-ray transient and variable sky
• Science with the EXTraS Project: Exploring the X-ray Transient and variable Sky
• Young Stellar Populations in MYStIX Star Forming Regions: Candidate Protostars
• A science gateway for Exploring the X-ray Transient and variable sky using EGI Federated Cloud
• High Energy Emission and its Variability in Young Stellar Objects