SUMMARY OF SEQUENCE NUMBER 500065

SUMMARY OF SEQUENCE NUMBER 500065

Title: ACIS/HST OBSERVATIONS OF RELATIVISTIC WISPS IN THE CRAB NEBULA

Observer: BURROWS

Subject Category: SN, SNR, and isolated NS

Seq: 500065 ObsId: 00769

Long-term Plan bin: 7-Mar-2000

ABSTRACT

The Crab Nebula offers a unique opportunity to study the physics of pulsar winds and relativistic plasmas. Comparison of ROSAT and HST observations reveals a fundamental connection between dynamic optical structure (e.g., wisps moving at 0.5c) and bright X-ray emission (e.g., the well-known X-ray torus). This connection is not surprising because both phenomena reflect the short lifetimes of the most energetic particles in the nebula. In an approved HST program we will monitor the Crab at 10-day intervals during 8 months in 1998-99. Here we request 5 AXAF ACIS visits to the Crab during this time. This X-ray/optical campaign offers a unique opportunity to tie the dynamical structure of the pulsar wind to the evolution of the particle population which is driving those dynamics.

TARGET SUMMARY

TARGET NAME RADEC TIME SI GRAT TYPE TC ROLL PRE PHASE MULTI PRI
CRAB NEBULA
83.631542
22.015664
2.400000
ACIS-S
NONE
GO
yes
yes
no
no
yes
5

IMAGES

(NOTE: RASS images currently only available for targets LTS scheduled on or after Apr-09-2000)

Roll/Visibility

PARAMETERS

Obscat Parameters