NuSTAR First Pulsar-wind Nebulae Results
Abstract
The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), successfully launched in June 2012, is the first telescope to bring the the hard X-ray (3 to 79 keV) sky into focus. NuSTAR's combination of sensitivity and angular resolution enable it, for the first time, to study the morphology of pulsar wind nebuale (PWNe) in the hard X-ray band above 10 keV. PWNe accelerate particles in the pulsar magnetosphere and/or relativistic wind termination shocks, and as the particles propagate outwards they suffer radiative and adiabatic losses. The morphology of the nebulae as a function of energy constrains the nature of the particle acceleration and propagation. We will present first results of the morphological changes observed with NuSTAR of the two PWNe: G21.5-0.9 and the Crab.
- Publication:
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AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division #13
- Pub Date:
- April 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013HEAD...1340005M