Dust-Grain Scattering of X-Rays Observed during the Lunar Occultation of a Transient X-Ray Source near the Galactic Center

Extended X-ray emission surrounding point X-ray sources has been detected in the energy band 1-10 keV during lunar occultation observations of the Galactic center region. These extended X-rays are most likely due to X-ray scattering by interstellar dust grains. The spatial size and the intensity of the extended emission around the transient X-ray source GS 1741.2-2859/1741.6-2849 have been studied extensively. The spatial size is consistent with the typical grain size of about 0.06 micron. The intensity is used to obtain the energy dependence of the scattering optical depth to the source, which suggests the existence of iron in the grains. The ratio of the iron column density contained in the grains to the hydrogen column density of the neutral gas is roughly consistent with the cosmic abundance of iron.