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H Persei Chandra X-Ray Point Source Catalog

Metadata Updated: February 6, 2026

This table contains some of the results from a Chandra/ACIS-I observations of the massive ~ 13-14 Myr-old cluster, h Persei, part of the famous Double Cluster (h and Chi Persei) in Perseus. Combining the list of 330 Chandra-detected sources with new optical/IR photometry and optical spectroscopy reveals ~ 165 X-ray bright stars with V <~ 23. Roughly 142 have optical magnitudes and colors consistent with cluster membership. The observed distribution of X-ray luminosity L<sub>x</sub> peaks at L<sub>x</sub> ~ 10<sup>30.3</sup> erg s<sup>-1</sup> and likely traces the bright edge of a far larger population of ~ 0.4-2 M<sub>sun</sub> X-ray active stars. From a short list of X-ray active stars with IRAC 8-micron excess from warm, terrestrial zone dust, the authors derive a maximum X-ray flux incident on forming terrestrial planets. Although there is no correlation between X-ray activity and IRAC excess, the fractional X-ray luminosity correlates with optical colors and spectral type. By comparing the distribution of L<sub>x</sub>/L<sub>star</sub> versus spectral type and (V-I) in h Per with results for other 1-100 Myr-old clusters, the authors show that stars slightly more massive than the Sun (>~ 1.5 M<sub>sun</sub>) fall out of X-ray saturation by ~ 10-15 Myr. Changes in stellar structure for >~ 1.5 M<sub>sun</sub> stars likely play an important role in this decline of X-ray emission. Chandra observations of h Persei were taken with a 41.1 ks exposure on 2004 December 2, (Obs. ID 5407; Sequence Number 200341) with the ACIS detector (chips 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7). The data were obtained in dithered, timed mode, with a frametime of 3.2 s. On-board event rejection and event telemetry was in the VFAINT mode. The field was centered on RA(2000) = 2h19m00s, Dec(2000) = 57d07'12", close to the center of h Persei from Bragg & Kenyon (2005, AJ, 130, 134) (RA(2000) = 2h18m56.4s, Dec(2000) = 57d08'25") and observed at a roll angle of 229 degrees. The data were not registered to an astrometric reference frame (e.g., Two Micron All Sky Survey, 2MASS). The ACIS-I field covers a 17' x 17' area. This table was created by the HEASARC in March 2009 based on the electronic versions of Tables 1 and 2 from the paper which were obtained from the Astronomical Journal web site. This is a service provided by NASA HEASARC .

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date February 6, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date February 6, 2026
Publisher High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center
Maintainer
Identifier ivo://nasa.heasarc/hperseicxo
Data Last Modified 2026-02-03
Category Astrophysics
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id e056e373-4be4-48d7-888e-b387d98d5200
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/hperseicxo.html
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash b971c3b5e1fb5fedba33197b96d7e4bdee80fcaaeff6466462adcf6c8632c934
Source Schema Version 1.1

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