G359.97-0.038: A HARD X-RAY FILAMENT ASSOCIATED WITH A SUPERNOVA SHELL-MOLECULAR CLOUD INTERACTION
- Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (United States)
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS 78, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- NRAO, P.O. Box O, Socorro, NM 87801 (United States)
- Instituto de Astrofísica, Facultad de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 306, Santiago 22 (Chile)
- Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
- DTU Space-National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Elektrovej 327, DK-2800 Lyngby (Denmark)
- Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
We present the first high-energy X-ray (>10 keV) observations of the non-thermal filament G359.97-0.038 using the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). This filament is one of approximately 20 X-ray filaments of unknown origin located in the central 20 pc region in the Galactic Center near Sgr A*. Its NuSTAR and Chandra broadband spectrum is characterized by a single power law with Γ = 1.3 ± 0.3 that extends from 2 to 50 keV, with an unabsorbed luminosity of 1.3 × 10{sup 33} erg s{sup –1} (d/8 kpc){sup 2} in the 2-8 keV band. Despite possessing a cometary X-ray morphology that is typical of a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) in high-resolution Chandra imaging, our spatially resolved Chandra spectral analysis found no significant spectral softening along the filament as would be expected from particle synchrotron cooling. Coincident radio emission is detected using the Very Large Array at 5.5 and 8.3 GHz. We examine and subsequently discard a PWN or magnetic flux tube as the origin of G359.97-0.038. We use broadband spectral characteristics and a morphological analysis to show that G359.97-0.038 is likely an interaction site between the shell of Sgr A East and an adjacent molecular cloud. This is supported by CS molecular line spectroscopy and the presence of an OH maser.
- OSTI ID:
- 22522092
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 800, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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