MULTIWAVELENGTH OBSERVATIONS OF THE SS 433 JETS
- Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN 46383 (United States)
- NRAO, P.O. Box 2, Socorro, NM 87801 (United States)
- Astronomy Department, 5408 Sterling Hall, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706 (United States)
We present observations of the SS 433 jets using the Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer with contemporaneous optical and Very Long Baseline Array observations. The X-ray and optical emission line regions are found to be related but not coincident as the optical line emission persists for days while the X-ray emission lines fade in less than 5000 s. The line Doppler shifts from the optical and X-ray lines match well, indicating that they are less than 3 × 10{sup 14} cm apart. The jet Doppler shifts show aperiodic variations that could result from shocks in interactions with the local environment. These perturbations are consistent with a change in jet direction but not jet speed. The proper motions of the radio knots match the kinematic model only if the distance to SS 433 is 4.5 ± 0.2 kpc. Observations during eclipse show that the occulted emission is very hard, seen only above 2 keV and rising to comprise >50% of the flux at 8 keV. The soft X-ray emission lines from the jet are not blocked, constraining the jet length to ∼> 2 × 10{sup 12} cm. The base jet density is in the range 10{sup 10-13} cm{sup –3}, in contrast to our previous estimate based on the Si XIII triplet, which is likely to have been affected by UV de-excitation. There is a clear overabundance of Ni by a factor of about 15 relative to the solar value, which may have resulted from an unusual supernova that formed the compact object.
- OSTI ID:
- 22270962
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 775, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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