X-ray Source Population in Nearby Galaxies
If a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole, which are created at the end of the life of a star, forms a binary system with another star, it accretes matter from its companion, thus producing bright X-ray emission. Owing to the different types of companion stars, different populations of these accreting white dwarfs or X-ray binaries in galaxies correspond to different stellar populations, thus different star formation histories in the galaxies. We study the X-ray source populations in nearby galaxies using both archival and proprietary X-ray data in combination with data from radio, infrared, and optical observations.
Copyright: infrared: ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/J. Fritz, U. Gent; X-ray: ESA/XMM-Newton/EPIC/W. Pietsch, MPE