A four-hours long burst from Serpens X-1

Cornelisse, R.; Kuulkers, E.; in't Zand, J. J. M.; Verbunt, F.; Heise, J.
Bibliographical reference

Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.382, p.174-177 (2002)

Advertised on:
1
2002
Number of authors
5
IAC number of authors
0
Citations
40
Refereed citations
28
Description
During a serendipitous observation of the BeppoSAX Wide Field Cameras, a very long type I X-ray burst was observed from the low mass X-ray binary Serpens X-1. The burst lasted for approximately 4 hours and had an exponential decay time of 69+/-2 min (2-28 keV). The bolometric peak-luminosity is (1.6+/-0.2)*E38 erg s-1 and the fluence (7.3+/-1.4)*E41 erg. The first ``normal" type I burst was observed 34 days after the superburst. This is in rough agreement with recent predictions for unstable carbon burning in a heavy element ocean.