Cool Stars 14 - Submitted Abstract # 291
This version created on 05 October 2006

X-ray emission from an adolescent classical T Tauri star


Antonio Maggio, INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo
Costanza Argiroffi, Dip. Scienze Fisiche e Astronomiche, Uni. Palermo

We report on a X-ray observation with XMM-Newton of MP Muscae, a
classical T Tauri star with an age of about 10  Myr, and hence quite
old for its class.  In fact, MP Mus is the only known star of this age
with evidence of an accretion disk, found in a survey of the Lower
Centaurus-Crux subgroup in the Scorpius- Centaurus association.
Moreover, this star also shows evidence of a cold dusty disk, as
indicated by excess emission at IR and mm wavelengths.  We have
obtained high signal-to-noise EPIC and RGS X-ray spectra of the source
which provide clear evidence of a relatively cool plasma component
characterized by high density.  In this respect, MP Mus appears quite
similar to TW Hya and BP Tau, and belongs to a group of T Tauri stars
whose soft X-ray emission is attributed to an accretion process rather
than magnetic activity.  

----------------------------------