An X-Ray Jet from a White Dwarf: Detection of the Collimated Outflow from CH Cygni with Chandra

Most symbiotic stars consist of a white dwarf accreting material from the wind of a red giant. An increasing number of these objects have been found to produce jets. Analysis of archival Chandra data of the symbiotic system CH Cygni reveals faint extended emission to the south, aligned with the optical and radio jets seen in earlier Hubble Space Telescope and Very Large Array observations. CH Cygni thus contains only the second known white dwarf with an X-ray jet, after R Aquarii. The X-rays from symbiotic star jets appear to be produced when jet material is shock-heated following collision with the surrounding gas, as with the outflows from some protostellar objects and bipolar planetary nebulae.