| Issue |
A&A
Volume 365, Number 1, January 2001
First Results from XMM-Newton
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | L212 - L217 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20000114 | |
| Published online | 15 January 2001 | |
New light on the X-ray spectrum of the Crab Nebula
1
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
2
Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstraße, 85740 Garching, Germany
3
Service d'Astrophysique DAPNIA/SAp, CE Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France e-mail: rw@star.le.ac.uk; bra@mpe.mpg.de; rgg@star.le.ac.uk; sse@star.le.ac.uk; rsw@star.le.ac.uk; web@mpe.mpg.de; afa@star.le.ac.uk; bobi@discovery.saclay.cea.fr
R. Willingale
Received:
2
October
2000
Accepted:
6
November
2000
XMM-Newton observations of the Crab provide new
information on its integrated X-ray spectrum and the variation
of the spectral form across the nebula. The Crab pulsar and its
surrounding torus exhibit the hardest spectra with power-law
indices of 
and 1.8. The jet and outer reaches
of the nebula are significantly softer with 
and 2.3
respectively. For the whole nebula, the huge number of
recorded counts allows a detailed examination of the soft X-ray
absorption due to cool gas in the foreground of the Crab.
Absorption edges due to oxygen and neon are clearly identified.
Oxygen and iron in the interstellar
medium are underabundant by a factor of 
.
The average 
cm-2 and
varies by less than 
on a scale equal to or larger than
20 arcsec over the face of the nebula.
These observations
of the Crab provide an excellent demonstration of the power of the EPIC
cameras on XMM-Newton for spatial, spectral and timing studies.
Key words: ISM: supernova remnants / ISM: individual: Crab Nebula
© ESO, 2001
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.