| Proposal Number | Subject Category | PI Name | Target Name | Total Chandra Time | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13200956 | Stars and WD | Kevin Flaherty | IC348 | 100ks | Connecting Young Stellar Object Variability Across the Great Observatories: A Combined Spitzer and Chandra Study |
| 13500954 | SN, SNR AND ISOLATED NS | Christopher S. Kochanek | NGC 6946 | 20ks | Understanding A New Class of Mid-IR Transients |
Subject Category: Stars and WD
Proposal Number: 13200956
Title: Connecting Young Stellar Object Variability Across the Great Observatories: A Combined Spitzer and Chandra Study
PI Name: Kevin Flaherty
We propose to monitor a cluster of young stars at 3.6 and 4.5 micron with Spitzer, as well as in the X-ray with Chandra, in order to trace infrared variability on timescales of months to years as well as connect it with known sources of X-ray variability. Previous observations have found that many young stellar objects fluctuate in as little as a few days. Possible sources of this variability include variable heating by X-ray, accretion or stellar flux, dynamical interactions with the stellar magnetic field or perturbations from a possibly planetary-mass companion embedded in the disk. Coordinated Spitzer and Chandra observations will be able to put constraints on the source of the variability and the importance of X-rays in setting the disk structure.
Subject Category: SN, SNR AND ISOLATED NS
Proposal Number: 13500954
Title: Understanding A New Class of Mid-IR Transients
PI Name: Christopher S. Kochanek
There is a new class of stellar transients whose progenitors are completely obscured (probably) extreme AGB stars, where the dust in the surviving wind appears to reform after the transient and again cloak the system. Whether these are true supernovae or a new class of stellar eruption is unclear, so the key question is whether or not the star survived. However, their present day emission appears to be due to optically thick dust (shock) heated by the ejecta from the transient, so we must understand the evolution of this emission and the dust optical depths before we can determine the survival of the stars. We propose a combination of Spitzer, Hubble and Chandra observations to comprehensively study this problem.
