ABSTRACT
An x-ray survey of Centaurus A has given marginal evidence of its x-ray flux. If taken as an upper limit on inverse Compton x-rays generated by scattering interactions between relativistic electrons and cosmological background photons, the observation implies an upper limit of close to 3 degrees K for the background radiation temperature.
ABSTRACT
X-ray pulsations have been observed in the Crab Nebula at a frequency closely matching the radio and optical pulsations. About 5 percent of the total x-ray power of the nebula appears in the pulsed component. The x-ray pulsations have the form of a main pulse and an interpulse separated by about 12 milliseconds.
ABSTRACT
Two crystal spectrometers aboard the orbiting solar observatory OSO-4 cover the wavelength ranges 0.5 to 3.9 angstroms and 1.0 to 8.5 angstroms. Within this range, there appear emission lines from hydrogen-like and helium-like states of calcium, sulfur, silicon, magnesium, and aluminum. The Mg XII Lyman-alpha is present strongly in all x-ray flares. The most intense flares (such as class 3) produce strong Si XIV Lyman-alpha and often S XVI Lyman-alpha. Emission, in the form of Ka lines of highly ionized states of calcium, iron, aluminum, and silicon is usually present. The continuum from 1 to 10 angstroms always dominates the line emission by more than an order of magnitude. Electron temperatures derived from the slope of the continuum spectrum are in the range of 10(7) to 10(8) degrees K, considerably higher than theoretical ionization equilibrium temperatures.
ABSTRACT
At least 30 discrete cosmic x-ray sources have been detected thus far. The distribution is concentrated toward the galactic plane, and most of the sources are believed to lie within 2 kiloparsecs of the sun. It is estimated that the average luminosity of the observed sources is about 5 x 10(36) ergs per second and that the entire galaxy contains about 1250 such sources. Comparisons of fluxes observed over the course of the past 2 years reveal that many sources are highly variable.
ABSTRACT
In a broad sky survey for x-ray sources in the 44-to 60-A range only Sco XR-1 was detected. The spectral evidence indicates that Sco XR-1 may lie within a few hundred light-years of the sun. Its spectrum appears to be complex possibly a mixture of thermal sources at different temperatures or of thermal and nonthermal components, as has been predicted for an active neutron star with an associated corona or magnetosphere.
ABSTRACT
Instruments carried aboard an Aerobee rocket in April 1965 provided evidence for x-ray emission from the directions of the radio galaxies Cygnus A and M-87 and from the galactic supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. A survey of the Cygnus region revealed a marked decrease in the flux of x-rays from Cygnus XR-1, which was identified in June 1964 as the second brightest object in the first Naval Research Laboratory list of x-ray sources. The detection sensitivity was improved over previous surveys and several new sources were detected at lower flux levels.