A model of the X-ray structure of the Crab nebula.
Abstract
We propose a model of the Crab Nebula explaining the results of recent X-ray measurements which have been obtained by means of the lunar occultation techniques. Electrons are assumed to be accelerated radially outwards in the neighborhood of the Crab pulsar to a distance of about 22 sec. The acceleration is not spherically symmetric, but is concentrated mainly within a region of limited angular extent around the rotational equatorial plane of the pulsar. There is expected only little steady emission within the acceleration domain, whereas outside the relativistic electrons start to emit synchrotron radiation. The proposed spatial orientation of the pulsar leads to an elliptically shaped configuration of the X-ray source elongated in a north-east-to-southwest direction.
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- June 1975
- Bibcode:
- 1975A&A....41..147A
- Keywords:
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- Astronomical Models;
- Crab Nebula;
- Pulsars;
- X Ray Sources;
- High Energy Electrons;
- Relativistic Particles;
- Stellar Magnetic Fields;
- Stellar Rotation;
- Synchrotron Radiation;
- Astrophysics