V1343 Aquilae
Abstract
R. C. Lamb, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Iowa State University; and J. C. Ling, W. A. Mahoney, G. R. Riegler, W. A. Wheaton and A. S. Jacobson, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, write: "We have preliminary evidence for gamma-ray line emission from the region surrounding V1343 Aql (= SS 433), from observations obtained with the high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometer aboard the HEAO-3 satellite during 1979 Oct. 10 to Nov. 5 and 1980 Apr. 4-25. One of the observed lines at an energy of 1.5 MeV has a statistical significance of more than 6-sigma. Another feature near 1.2 MeV is less prominent. Both features exhibit line widths of ~ 1 percent. The intensity of the 1.5-MeV feature has a 46-day time-average value of 15 +/- 3 photons m**-2 s**-1 and is variable by a factor of about five on a timescale of days. The 1.2-MeV feature is similarly variable with a time-average intensity of 11 +/- 2 photons m**-2 s**-1. The combined power in the lines is ~ 2 . 10**30 J/s, assuming isotropic emission. The lines varied by ~ 40 keV over ~ 20 days during the 1979 observations. Optical and radio phenomena previously observed from SS 433 have been interpreted in terms of a kinematic model in which two oppositely-directed jets of relativistic material (v = 0.26c) are ejected from a central source. The energies of the two features reported here are satisfactorily explained in terms of this kinematic model as blue- and red-shifted components of the 1.369-MeV line from nuclear deexcitation of Mg-34 to its ground state. The energy variation is consistent with the pattern seen in the optical, in which 'movement' of optical features is explained by a precession of the axis of the jets in space with a 164-day period."
- Publication:
-
International Astronomical Union Circular
- Pub Date:
- April 1983
- Bibcode:
- 1983IAUC.3793....1L