Discovery of a bow shock around Vela X-1
Astrophysics
2009-10-28 v1
Abstract
We report the discovery of a symmetric bow shock around the well-known high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB) Vela X-1. Wind bow shocks are a ubiquitous phenomenon around OB-runaway stars, but now such a structure is found around a HMXB. The presence of a bow shock indicates that the system has a high (supersonic) velocity with respect to the interstellar medium. From the symmetry of the bow shock, the direction of motion and, moreover, the origin and age of the system can be derived. Our observation supports Blaauw's scenario for the formation of an OB-runaway star by the supernova explosion of the binary companion.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9611017,
title = {Discovery of a bow shock around Vela X-1},
author = {Lex Kaper and Jacco van Loon and Thomas Augusteijn and Paul Goudfrooij and Nando Patat and Albert Zijlstra and Rens Waters},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9611017},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
14 pages, latex (including style file), 3 postscript figures, ApJ Letters, in press