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A Chandra View of Diffuse X‐Ray Emission in the Central 20 Parsecs of the Galaxy
Author(s) -
Park Sangwook,
Baganoff Frederick K.,
Bautz Mark W.,
Garmire Gordon P.,
Maeda Yoshitomo,
Morris Mark,
Muno Michael P.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
astronomische nachrichten
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.394
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-3994
pISSN - 0004-6337
DOI - 10.1002/asna.200385042
Subject(s) - physics , astrophysics , astronomy , galaxy
Over the last three years, the Galactic center region has been monitored with a series of Chandra /ACIS observations. Besides the target object Sgr A*, the surrounding diffuse X‐ray emission has been detected within the 17′ × 17′ field of view. As of 2002 June, combining all 12 GTO and GO observations, the total effective exposure reaches ∼ 590 ks, which reveals the detail structure of the faint filamentary diffuse X‐ray emission with significant photon statistics. We here present preliminary results from the imaging/spectral analyses of these data. The “true‐color” X‐ray image and the equivalent width (EW) images for the detected elemental species of the Galactic center region indicate that the diffuse X‐ray features have complex spatiospectral structures. We detect strong enhancements of He‐like Fe within the 1.3′ diameter circular region in the immediate east of Sgr A*, which is most likely emission from the highly ionized Fe associated with the supernova remnant Sgr A East. Enhancements of the low ionization state Fe and highly ionized S and Si EWs in the northeast of Sgr A* may be interpreted as irradiation of photons from external X‐ray sources and/or emission from bombardments of high energy particles such as unresolved SN ejecta.