The X-ray Halo of G21.5-0.9

Abstract

The emission of the plerion G21.5-0.9 appears more extended in X rays than in radio. This is an unexpected result because it would imply that short-lived X-ray electrons may reach distances even larger than radio electrons. Applying an empirical relationship between dust scattering optical depth and photoelectric column density, the measured column density leads to a large optical depth at 1 keV, of about 1. Therefore we investigate the hypothesis that the detected halo be an effect of dust scattering, re-analyzing an Cal/PV XMM-Newton observation of G21.5-0.9 and critically examining it in terms of a dust scattering model. We also present a spectral analysis of a prominent extended feature in the northern sector of the halo.

6 pages, 5 figures, Latex, txfonts cospar and natbib macro packages, to appear in "High Energy Studies of Supernova Remnants and Neutron Stars" (COSPAR 2002), Eds. W. Hermsen, W. Becker, Advances in Space Research, in press

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Cross-calibration of the X-ray Instruments onboard the Chandra, INTEGRAL, RXTE, Suzaku, Swift, and XMM-Newton Observatories using G21.5-0.9
• Pulsar-wind nebulae and magnetar outflows: observations at radio, X-ray, and gamma-ray wavelengths
• NuSTAR study of Hard X-Ray Morphology and Spectroscopy of PWN G21.5-0.9
• The Plerionic Supernova Remnant G21.5-0.9 Powered by PSR J1833-1034: New Spectroscopic and Imaging Results Revealed with the Chandra X-ray Observatory
• The nature of the X-ray halo of the plerion G21.5-0.9 unveiled by XMM-Newton and Chandra
• The Plerionic Supernova Remnant G21.5-0.9: In and Out
• XMM-Newton and Suzaku detection of an X-ray emitting shell around the pulsar wind nebula G54.1+0.3
• The deepest Chandra X-ray study of the plerionic supernova remnant G21.5$-$0.9