ROSAT Guest Observer Facility

RCW 103

RCW103

Image courtesy of W.Becker (MPE, web@mpe-garching.mpg.de)

The supernova remnant RCW 103, located about 6.5 Kpc away (a parsec is 3.26 light years and a kilo parsec is 1000 light years) is thought to be one of the most powerful SNR sources of infrared line emission. RCW 103 is also a soft X-ray source with a flux of 1.8 x 10^-10 ergs cm^2 s^-1 within energies of 0.6 Kev to 2.0 KeV. There is evidence that plasma at temperatures of 2x10^6 K is present. In 1980, astrophysicists Tuohy and Garmire found a compact x-ray source at the center of this SNR, although optically, on source has not been identified. However, the x-ray emission from this object is consistant with the expected blackbody radiation from a neutron star which indicates that there may be one hidden within SNR RCW103.
Get the high resolution (300 dpi) TIFF format version.

Curator: Michael Arida (ADNET)
HEASARC Guest Observer Facility


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This file was last modified on Tuesday, 25-Aug-2020 18:01:41 EDT

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