Chandra X-ray Spectroscopy of Kes75, its Young Pulsar, and its Synchrotron Nebula

Abstract

We have observed the young Galactic supernova remnant Kes 75 with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. This object is one of an increasing number of examples of a shell-type remnant with a central extended radio core harboring a pulsar. Here we present a preliminary spatially resolved spectroscopic analysis of the Kes~75 system. We find that the spectrum of the pulsar is significantly harder than that of the wind nebula, and both of these components can be isolated from the diffuse thermal emission that seems to follow the same distribution as the extended radio shell. When we characterize the thermal emission with a model of an under-ionized plasma and non-solar elemental abundances, we require a significant diffuse high energy component, which we model as a power-law with a photon index similar to that of the synchrotron nebula.