Extended Emission from Cygnus X-3 Detected with Chandra

We have discovered extended X-ray emission from the microquasar Cyg X-3 inarchival Chandra X-ray Observatory observations. A 5" wide structure liesapproximately 16" to the NE from the core point source and may be extended inthat direction. This angular scale corresponds to a physical extent of roughly0.8 lyr, at a distance of 2.5 lyr from Cyg X-3 (assuming a 10 kpc distance).The flux varied by a factor of 2.5 during the four months separating two of theobservations, indicating significant substructure. The peak 2-10 keV luminositywas about 5e34 ergs/s. There may also be weaker, extended emission of similarscale oppositely directed from the core, suggesting a bipolar outflow. Thisstructure is not part of the dust scattering halo, nor is it caused by theChandra point spread function. In this Letter we describe the observations anddiscuss possible origins of the extension.Comment: Submitted to ApJ Letters. 5 pages, 2 figures (1 color). Uses emulateap