With the help of ESA’s XMM-Newton and Swift spacecraft of NASA, astronomers have discovered an eclipsing magnetic cataclysmic variable (CV) of the polar type, which is a hard X-ray resource termed “2PBCJ0658.0-1746.” A white dwarf and a normal star companion’s presence make the CVs a binary star system. Their irregularity is known to enhance the brightness by an outsized factor before falling back to its quiescent state. Polars are a subcategory of CVs separated from supplementary CVs in the presence of a strong magnetic field in the white dwarfs. From the 140 detected polars, only 33 of them have been tagged as eclipsing systems. And, further 12 of them have been grouped as hard X-ray eclipsing polars. Thus, a large database of such systems is required for listing out such objects.
Such studies can help provide the astronomers with more of details on the magnetic accretion in binaries. Federico Bernardini from Rome Observatory along with his team has analyzed XMM-Newton and Swift data before finding 2PBCJ0658.0-1746 (J0658), which is a hard X-ray eclipsing polar. The X-ray emission clearly shows the bright and faint stages along with the total eclipses appearing every 2.38 Hours. The X-ray emission was found to be changing at the orbital period and the intensity of the change was observed to be variable from cycle to cycle, which is termed as a non-stationary mass accretion rate.
As per the study, during an extended period of time, the X-ray luminosity was found to be highly variable and the XMM-Newton spacecraft spotted it at the lowest state ever seen. The X-ray spectrum observations show it to be thermal and consistent with a multi-temperature composition, as seen in many magnetic systems. J0658 is the 13th hard X-ray eclipsing polar detected and its orbital period of 2.38 Hours makes it quite rare. Similarly, Juno is NASA’s spacecraft that has been orbiting the gas giant, Jupiter, since 2016. It has been able to collect data on magnetic forces surrounding Jupiter’s poles. The latest data is based on the electric currents peering through Jupiter’s magnetosphere. The current study on Jupiter’s powerful magnetic fields can help understand Earth’s weaker magnetic field and protection against harsh solar particles.
