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[114.06] Interstellar Dust Seen with X-ray Halos from Chandra and XMM/Newton

R. K. Smith, T. M. Dame (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)

X-ray halos created by interstellar dust grains have been observed with Einstein, ROSAT, and ASCA. However, Chandra observations qualitatively change the analysis that can be done, while XMM/Newton provides substantially more data on X-ray halos than has ever been available. The variation in the halo intensity with energy and angle is strongly dependent on the composition, size, and position of the dust grains. Prior observations allowed at best rough estimates of the dust grain properties to be made. Smith, Edgar & Shafer (2002) used Chandra observations of the LMXB GX13+1 to measure an X-ray halo in far greater detail than ever before. We present results analyzed in a similar fashion using archival Chandra and XMM/Newton data on Galactic sources to measure energy-resolved X-ray halos. In addition, we can combine the X-ray data with CO and 21 cm spectral line surveys of the inner Galaxy to further constrain our modelling efforts. We will show comparisons of our results to existing dust grain models.

We gratefully acknowledge support for this work from NASA Grants AR1-2006X and NAG5-13180.

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.