Year-scale morphological variation of the X-ray Crab Nebula
Abstract
We present year-scale morphological variations of the Crab Nebula revealed by Chandra X-ray observatory. Observations have been performed about every 1.7 years over the 3 years from its launch. The variations are clearly recognized at two sites: the torus and the southern jet. The torus, which had been steadily expanding until 1.7 years ago, now appears to have shrunk in the latest observation. Additionally, the circular structures seen to the northeast of the torus have decayed into several arcs. On the other hand, the southern jet shows the growth of its overall kinked-structure. We discuss the nature of these variations in terms of the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) mechanism.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0311409,
title = {Year-scale morphological variation of the X-ray Crab Nebula},
author = {K. Mori and D. N. Burrows and G. G. Pavlov and J. J. Hester and S. Shibata and H. Tsunemi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0311409},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
To appear in "Young Neutron Stars and Their Environments" (IAU Symposium 218, ASP Conference Proceedings), eds F. Camilo and B. M. Gaensler