A Catalog of Diffuse X-ray-Emitting Features within 20 pc of Sgr A*: Twenty Pulsar Wind Nebulae?

Understand

We present a catalog of 34 diffuse features identified in X-ray images of the Galactic center taken with the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

• Several of the features have been discussed in the literature previously, including 7 that are associated with a complex of molecular clouds that exhibits fluorescent line emission, 4 that are superimposed on the supernova remnant Sgr A East, 2 that are coincident with radio features that are thought to be the shell of another supernova remnant, and one that is thought to be a pulsar wind nebula only a few arcseconds in projection from Sgr A*.
• However, this leaves 20 features that have not been reported previously.
• Based on the weakness of iron emission in their spectra, we propose that most of them are non-thermal.