Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Middle-aged Pulsar 0656+14

Details Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Middle-aged Pulsar 0656+14 Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Middle-aged Pulsar 0656+14

Nov 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997apj...489l..75p&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal Letters v.489, p.L75

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

50

Stars: Pulsars: General, Stars: Binaries, Visual, Stars: Pulsars: Individual Alphanumeric: Psr 0656+14, Stars: Atmospheres, Stars: Evolution, Stars: Interiors, Stars: Neutron

Scientific paper

Multiwavelength spectral observations of middle-aged ( tau ~104--106 yr) isolated pulsars enable one in principle to separate thermal radiation emitted from the neutron star surface and nonthermal radiation from its magnetosphere. We have previously detected the middle-aged radio and soft X-ray pulsar 0656+14 with the Hubble Space Telescope Faint Object Camera (FOC) long-pass filter F130LP. In the present Letter we report new FOC observations of this pulsar with three broadband filters: F430W, F342W, and F195W. The optical-UV spectral flux can be fitted with a two-component spectral model that combines a power-law spectrum with a Rayleigh-Jeans spectrum. The nonthermal component with the power-law index alpha =1.4^{-0.7}_{+0.6} dominates at lambda >~3000 A. The thermal component is characterized by the Rayleigh-Jeans parameter, G=T6(R10/d500)2 , where T=106T6 K is the brightness temperature, R_∞=10R10 km is the neutron star radius as seen by a distant observer, and d=500d500 pc is the distance. For a plausible extinction, E(B-V)=0.03 , we obtained G=3.6^{+1.6}_{-2.0} . The observed shape of the optical-UV spectrum of PSR 0656+14 differs drastically from those of both younger pulsars (Crab, 0540-69, Vela) and the older pulsar Geminga.

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