2001/08/07 by Katsuji Koyama, Koyama, Katsuji
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0108109
6 pages, 8 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the "New Century of X-ray Astronomy" symposium, ASP Conference Series
arxiv created 2001/08/07 · openalex publication_date 2001/08/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This paper reports on the early Chandra view of the Galactic center (GC) activities. The massive black hole Sgr A* is extremely faint, while more bright diffuse X-ray emission is prevailing in the circumnuclear disk. Another high temperature plasma is found in the Sgr A East shell. This may indicate that Sgr A East is a supernova remnant, although no clear X-ray shell is found. A hint of non-thermal X-ray filaments is found, suggesting the presence of an acceleration site of extremely high-energy cosmic rays. The giant molecular cloud Sgr B2 is established to be an X-ray reflection nebula, possibly arising from the past Sgr A activities. Chandra further discovered high temperature shells, suggesting multiple supernova explosions near the GC region.