2003/06/09 by O. Kargaltsev, O.Y. Kargaltsev, G. G. Pavlov +4
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysical jet #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Jet (fluid) #Luminosity #Nebula #Perpendicular #Pulsar #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Synchrotron radiation #Vela #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/s1387-6473(03)00077-0
published as New Astron.Rev. 47 (2003) 487-490 · 4 pages, including 1 figure, accepted for publication in New Astronomy Reviews; proceedings of the conference "The Physics of Relativistic Jets in the CHANDRA and XMM Era", 23-27 September 2002, Bologna. The full resolution versions of the images shown in the fugure are avaliable at http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/green/vela_jet_proc/vela_jet_proc.html
arxiv created 2003/06/09 · openalex publication_date 2003/09/03 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · arxiv updated 2016/08/30 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Chandra observations of the Vela pulsar-wind nebula (PWN) have revealed a jet in the direction of the pulsar's proper motion, and a counter-jet in the opposite direction, embedded in diffuse nebular emission. The jet consists of a bright, 8''-long inner jet, between the pulsar and the outer arc, and a dim, curved outer jet that extends up to 100'' in approximately the same direction. From the analysis of thirteen Chandra observations spread over about 2.5 years we found that this outer jet shows particularly strong variability, changing its shape and brightness. We observed bright blobs in the outer jet moving away from the pulsar with apparent speeds (0.3-0.6)c and fading on time-scales of days to weeks. The spectrum of the outer jet fits a power-law model with a photon index of 1.3±0.1. The X-ray emission of the outer jet can be interpreted as synchrotron radiation of ultrarelativistic electrons/positrons. This interpretation allows one to estimate the magnetic field, ~100 microGauss, maximum energy of X-ray emitting electrons, ~2× 1014 eV, and energy injection rate, ~8× 1033 erg/s, for the outer jet. In the summed PWN image we see a dim, 2'-long outer counter-jet, which also shows a power-law spectrum with photon ined of 1.2-1.5. Southwest of the jet/counter-jet an extended region of diffuse emission is seen. Relativistic particles responsible for this radiation are apparently supplied by the outer jet.