[Previous] | [Session 26] | [Next]

[26.07] ASCA Observations of the Young Radio Pulsar J1119-6127

M. J. Pivovaroff, V. M. Kaspi (MIT), F. Camilo (Columbia)

We present preliminary results from an ASCA observation of PSR J1119-6127, an isolated radio pulsar with period P = 0.4~s and period derivative \dot{P} = 4 \times 10^-12, the largest known of any radio pulsar. This pulsar, recently discovered in an ongoing survey of the Galactic plane at the 64-m Parkes telescope, has an extremely young characteristic age \tau_c = 1600~yr and large spin-down luminosity \dot{E} = 2 \times 10³⁶ ergs~s^-1, making it a likely candidate for high-energy emission. In fact, X-ray emission is detected from the position of the radio pulsar and from an region 14^\prime in extent, centered roughly on the pulsar and spatially coincident with a ring-like shell of radio emission. We suggest that this extended emission is a previously unidentified supernova remnant associated with pulsar PSR J1119-6217.

M.~J.~P. is supported in part by NASA under Contract NASA-37716. V.~M.~K. is supported in part by the NASA Long Term Space Astrophysics program under grant NAGS-8063.