| Type |
Journal Article |
| Names |
K. Wiersema, D. M. Russell, N. Degenaar, M. Klein-Wolt, R. Wijnands, S. Heinz, A. M. Read, R. D. Saxton, N. R. Tanvir |
| Publication |
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters |
| Volume |
397 |
| Issue |
1 |
| Pages |
L6-L10 |
| Date |
July 1, 2009 |
| URL |
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009MNRAS.397L...6W |
| Library Catalog |
NASA ADS |
| Abstract |
In a multiwavelength programme dedicated to identifying optical
counterparts of faint persistent X-ray sources in the Galactic bulge, we
find an accurate X-ray position of SAX J1712.6-3739 through Chandra
observations, and discover its faint optical counterpart using our data
from EFOSC2 on the ESO 3.6-m telescope. We find this source to be a
highly extincted neutron star low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) with blue
optical colours. We serendipitously discover a relatively bright and
large bow shock shaped nebula in our deep narrow-band Hα imaging,
most likely associated with the X-ray binary. A nebula like this has
never been observed before in association with a LMXB, and as such
provides a unique laboratory to study the energetics of accretion and
jets. We put forward different models to explain the possible ways the
LMXB may form this nebulosity, and outline how they can be confirmed
observationally. |
| Tags |
ISM: jets and outflows, X-Rays: Binaries |