Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: On the basis of 3 years of deep observations of the Galactic center with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory , we report the discovery of changes in the intensities and morphologies of two hard X-ray nebulosities. The nebulosities are dominated by fluorescent iron emission and are coincident with molecular clouds. The morphological changes are manifest on parsec scales, which requires that these iron features are scattered X-rays from a 2 or 3 year long outburst of a point source (either Sgr A* or an X-ray binary) with a luminosity of at least 10 37 ergs s -1 . The variability precludes the hypotheses that these nebulae either are produced by keV electrons bombarding molecular clouds or are iron-rich ejecta from supernovae. Moreover, the morphologies of the reflection nebulae implies that the dense regions of the clouds are filamentary, with widths of ≈0.3 pc and lengths of ≈2 pc.
Source: The Astrophysical Journal
DOI: 10.1086/512236
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1997735880