Why Do Stars Emit X Rays?

JUL 01, 1987

Careful study of our closest star, the Sun, suggests that bundles of twisted magnetic flux tubes extending from subsurface layers may account for the surprising prevalence of x rays from most rather ordinary stars.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881079

Eugene N. Parker

The Sun was the first observed x‐ray star. In 1948 rocket‐borne instruments, carried out of the terrestrial atmosphere for only a few minutes at a time, detected solar x rays. Then in April 1960 instruments recorded the first x‐ray photograph of the Sun.

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More about the authors

Eugene N. Parker, University of Chicago.