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Issue A&A Volume 445, Number 1, January I 2006 Page(s) L9 - L13 Section Letters DOI 10.1051/0004-6361:200500217

A&A 445, L9-L13 (2006)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:200500217

Letter

On the complex X-ray structure tracing the motion of Geminga

A. De Luca¹, P. A. Caraveo¹, F. Mattana^{1, 2}, A. Pellizzoni¹ and G. F. Bignami<sup>3, 4, 1

1</sup>  INAF - IASF, Via Bassini 15, 20133 Milano, Italy
    e-mail: deluca@iasf-milano.inaf.it
²  Università di Milano Bicocca, Dipartimento di Fisica, P.za della Scienza 3, 20126 Milano, Italy
³  CESR/CNRS, 9 Av. du colonel Roche, 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
⁴  Università degli Studi di Pavia, Dipartimento di Fisica Nucleare e Teorica, via Bassi 4, 27100 Pavia, Italy

(Received 17 August 2005 / Accepted 13 November 2005)

Abstract
A deep (100 ks) XMM-Newton observation of Geminga has shown two faint tails of diffuse X-ray emission, extending for ~2' behind the pulsar, well aligned with the proper motion (PM) direction. We report here on a recent ~20 ks Chandra observation, which unveils a new structure, ~25'' long and ~5'' thick, starting at the pulsar position and perfectly aligned with the PM direction, with a surface brightness ~40 times higher than that of the XMM Tails. The Chandra comet-like feature has a remarkably hard spectrum (photon index ~0.9-1.4) and a luminosity of ~  erg s^-1, comparable to the energetics of the larger XMM one. Geminga is thus the first neutron star to show a clear X-ray evidence of a large-scale, outer bow-shock as well as a short, inner cometary trail.

Key words: stars: neutron -- pulsars: individual: Geminga -- X-rays: stars

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© ESO 2005

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