An Imaging and Spectral Study of 10 X-Ray Filaments around the Galactic Center

We report the detection of 10 new X-ray filaments using the data from the Chandra X-ray satellite for the inner 6' (~15 pc) around the Galactic center (GC). All these X-ray filaments are characterized by nonthermal energy spectra, and most of them have pointlike features at their heads that point inward. Fitted with the simple absorbed power-law model, the measured X-ray flux from an individual filament in the 2-10 keV band is ~2.8 × 10−14 to 10−13 ergs cm−2 s−1, and the absorption-corrected X-ray luminosity is ~1032-1033 ergs s−1 at a presumed distance of 8 kpc to the GC. We speculate the origin(s) of these filaments by morphologies and by comparing their X-ray images with the corresponding radio and infrared images. On the basis of the combined information available, we suspect that these X-ray filaments might be pulsar wind nebulae associated with pulsars of ages 103 to 3 × 105 yr. The fact that most of the filament tails point outward may further suggest a high-velocity wind blowing away from the GC.