Cygnus X-3's "Little" Friend
Michael McCollough (SAO) , Lynne Valencic (NASA/GSFC)
Cygnus X-3 is a well know microquasar which shows state changes, strong radio emission, hard X-ray-radio correlations, and relativistic jets. The exact nature of compact object associated with this system is still uncertain. In this presentation are shown new results which will further illustrate the complexity and uniqueness of this system. In 2003 extended X-ray emission was discovered associated with Cygnus X-3 using Chandra (Heindl et al. 2003). One of the most likely interpretations of this feature was that of a jet impact region. In 2006 a longer Chandra observation during which Cygnus X-3 was in a brighter X-ray state has revealed a much better look at this emission. We will show that even though this feature is 16" away from Cygnus X-3 it demonstrates remarkable time correlated activity associated with Cygnus X-3. The behavior of this emission and the possible nature of this feature will be discussed in this presentation.