The radio surroundings of the microquasar GRO J1655-40

¹ Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía, C.C.5, (1894) Villa Elisa, Buenos Aires, Argentina
² CEA/DMS/DAPNIA/Service D'Astrophysique, Centre d'Études de Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
³ Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio (IAFE), C.C. 67, Suc. 28, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Corresponding author: J. A. Combi, pauletich@sinectis.com.ar

Received: 12 February 2001
Accepted: 22 February 2001

Abstract

We report the results of a study of the radio surroundings of the superluminal microquasar GRO J1655-40. We have searched for extended continuum structures that might be indicative of the presence of a supernova remnant (SNR) associated with the formation of the compact object in the binary system. We also carried out HI-line observations of the region looking for a local minimum created by an explosive event. Our results indicate that there is, in fact, a bubble in the large-scale HI distribution around GRO J1655-40. We suggest that this structure might be created by the original supernova explosion occurred a few hundred thousand years ago and whose signatures can be traced by the overabundance of α-elements recently found by Israelian et al. ([CITE]) in the companion star.