Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons^™

X-Ray Spectroscopy Of The O Supergiant Ζ Puppis Indicates Surprising Variation In The Wind Mass-Loss Rate On Years Timescales, Jiaming Wang , '22

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

We apply two mass-loss rate diagnostics described in the thesis on Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray spectroscopic measurements of ζ Pup, one of the most luminous stars in the Milky Way and one of the closest O stars to Earth. Emission line profile analysis from new long Chandra grating observations taken during 2018 and 2019 indicates a significant 40% increase in ζ Pup’s wind mass-loss rate as compared to data taken in Chandra’s first observation cycle in 2000. Broadband spectral modeling of 20 years of XMM observations also reveal non-periodic wind mass-loss rate variation at a 40% level on timescales …