Unusual diffuse X-ray source in the Galactic center region

Atsushi Senda, Hiroshi Murakami, and Katsuji Koyama


(1) Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan; senda@cr.scphys.kyoto-u.ac.jp, hiro@cr.scphys.kyoto-u.ac.jp, koyama@cr.scphys.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Paper: ApJ, Feb 2002, in press

EPrint Server: astro-ph/0110011


Abstract:

We report the ASCA and Chandra discovery of a diffuse X-ray source in the Galactic center region. The X-ray spectrum is fitted with a non-equilibrium ionization (NEI) plasma model of about 6-keV temperature. The model requires higher than solar metal abundances, a young plasma age of 100 years and a large N_H value of about 1023 cm-2. The N_H value constrains the source position to be in the Galactic center region at about 8.5 kpc distance. The high resolution X-ray image with the Chandra ACIS shows a ring of 10'' radius which corresponds to 0.4 pc at the Galactic center, and a tail-like structure. Although the morphology is peculiar, the other X-ray features are likely to be a very young supernova remnant, possibly in a free expansion phase.


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

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