Discovery of extended VHE gamma-ray emission from the asymmetric pulsar wind nebula in MSH 15-52 with HESS
Open Access
- 25 April 2005
- journal article
- letter
- Published by EDP Sciences in Astronomy & Astrophysics
- Vol. 435 (1) , L17-L20
- https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:200500105
Abstract
The Supernova Remnant MSH 15-52 has been observed in very high energy (VHE) γ-rays using the HESS 4-telescope array located in Namibia. A γ-ray signal is detected at the 25 sigma level during an exposure of 22.1 h live time. The image reveals an elliptically shaped emission region around the pulsar PSR B1509–58, with semi-major axis ~ in the NW-SE direction and semi-minor axis ~. This morphology coincides with the diffuse pulsar wind nebula as observed at X-ray energies by ROSAT. The overall energy spectrum from 280 GeV up to 40 TeV can be fitted by a power law with photon index . The detected emission can be plausibly explained by inverse Compton scattering of accelerated relativistic electrons with soft photons.Keywords
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