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[106.19] UV Sounding Rocket Imaging of a Non-Radiative Shock in OVI

C. E. Boone, J. C. Green (University of Colorado at Boulder), M. N. Beasley (University of Arizona), E. Wilkinson (Ball Aerospace)

A recent (June 2004) sounding rocket mission has obtained an image of a non-radiative shock in the OVI doublet 1032, 1038 Å. The shock observed was the P7 shock, a very bright, edge-on shock in the NE section of the Cygnus Loop. For the majority of the cooling time of the post-shock ISM, the gas is well described by a Maxwellian and its behavior follows normal hydrodynamics. However, the discontinuity of the shockwave causes the gas to become briefly non-Maxwellian, and the physical process which allows the gas to attain thermal equilibrium is unknown. The main science goal of the mission was to compare the location of the OVI emission with respect to the shock front location, as defined by the Halpha emission in previous observations. The distance between these two locations will depend on the method of ion-electron temperature equilibration behind the shock.

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.