The {ital ROSAT} HRI x-ray survey of the Cygnus loop

Journal Article · Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1997 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1086/304334· OSTI ID:542540

Levenson, N A; Graham, J R ^[1]; Aschenbach, B ^[2]; Blair, W P ^[3]; Brinkmann, W; Busser, J; Egger, R ^[2]; Fesen, R A ^[4]; Hester, J J ^[5]; Kahn, S M ^[6]; Klein, R I ^[1]; McKee, C F ^[1]; Petre, R; Pisarski, R ^[7]; Raymond, J C ^[8]; Snowden, S L ^[7]

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1. Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
2. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse, D-85740 Garching (Germany)
3. Johns Hopkins University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Baltimore, Maryland 21218 (United States)
4. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755 (United States)
5. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287 (United States)
6. Departments of Astronomy and Physics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027 (United States)
7. Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 (United States)
8. Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 (United States)

We describe and report progress on the joint U.S. and German campaign to map the X-ray emission from the entire Cygnus Loop with the {ital ROSAT} High Resolution Imager. The Cygnus Loop is the prototype for a supernova remnant that is dominated by interactions with the interstellar medium and supplies fundamental physical information on this basic mechanism for shaping the interstellar medium. The global view that these high-resolution (FWHM{approximately}10{sup {prime}{prime}}) observations provide emphasizes the inhomogeneity of the interstellar medium and the pivotal nature of cloud{endash}blast-wave interactions in determining the X-ray morphology of the supernova remnant. While investigating the details of the evolution of the blast wave, we also describe the interstellar medium in the vicinity of the Cygnus Loop, which the progenitor star has processed. Although we do not expect the X-ray observations to be complete until 1997 September, the incomplete data combined with deep H{alpha} images provide definitive evidence that the Cygnus Loop was formed by an explosion within a preexisting cavity. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Astronomical Society}

• OSTI ID: 542540
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 484, Issue 1; Other Information: PBD: Jul 1997
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS
X-RAY EMISSION ANALYSIS
IMAGE PROCESSING
MAPPING
EXPLOSIONS
BRIGHTNESS