X-Ray Observations on the Galactic Center Region

Katsuji Koyama


(1) Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University

Paper: proc. of New Century of X-ray Astronomy, ASP Conf.

EPrint Server: astro-ph/0108109


Abstract:

This paper reports on the early Chandra view of the Galactic center (GC) activities. The massive black hole Sgr A^* is extremely faint, while more bright diffuse X-ray emission is prevailing in the circumnuclear disk. Another high temperature plasma is found in the Sgr A East shell. This may indicate that Sgr A East is a supernova remnant, although no clear X-ray shell is found. A hint of non-thermal X-ray filaments is found, suggesting the presence of an acceleration site of extremely high-energy cosmic rays. The giant molecular cloud Sgr B2 is established to be an X-ray reflection nebula, possibly arising from the past Sgr A activities. Chandra further discovered high temperature shells, suggesting multiple supernova explosions near the GC region.


Preprints available from the authors at hiro@cr.scphys.kyoto-u.ac.jp , or the raw TeX (no figures) if you click here.

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