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Revisiting the Local Leo Cold Cloud and Revised Constraints on the Local Hot Bubble

S. L. Snowden 1 C. Heiles 2 Dimitra Koutroumpa 3 K. D. Kuntz 4 Rosine Lallement 5 D. Mccammon 6 J. E. G. Peek 7
1 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
2 Department of Astronomy [Berkeley]
3 HELIOS - LATMOS
LATMOS - Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales
4 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Baltimore]
5 GEPI - Galaxies, Etoiles, Physique, Instrumentation
6 Department of Physics [Madison]
7 STSci - Space Telescope Science Institute
Abstract : The Local Leo Cold Cloud (LLCC, at a distance of 11–24 pc) was studied in its relation to the Local Hot Bubble (LHB) and the result suggested that much of the observed $1/4$ keV emission in that direction originates in front of the cloud. This placed a strong constraint on the distribution of X-ray emission within the LHB and called into question the assumption of a uniform distribution of X-ray emitting plasma within the Local Cavity. However, recent work has quantified the contribution of heliospheric solar wind charge exchange (SWCX) emission to the diffuse X-ray background measured by the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS) at $1/4$ keV, and led to the consistency of pressure measurements between the LHB and the local cloud component of the complex of local interstellar clouds (CLICs) surrounding the Sun. In this paper we revisit the LLCC and improve the previous analysis by using higher resolution RASS data, a serendipitous ROSAT pointed observation, a rigorous treatment of the band-averaged X-ray absorption cross section, and models for the heliospheric and magnetospheric SWCX contributions. We find that the foreground emission to the cloud is in excess of the expected heliospheric (interplanetary plus near Earth) SWCX contribution but that it is marginally consistent with the range of possible LHB plasma path lengths between the LLCC and the CLICs given the currently understood plasma emissivity.
Keywords : ISM: magnetic fields ISM: clouds ISM: bubbles solar neighborhood X-rays: diffuse background
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https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01165746
Contributor : Catherine Cardon <>
Submitted on : Friday, June 19, 2015 - 8:32:05 PM
Last modification on : Wednesday, April 14, 2021 - 3:39:32 AM

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INSU | CNRS | OBSPM | UPMC | UVSQ | LATMOS | SORBONNE-UNIVERSITE | SU-SCIENCES | UNIV-PARIS7 | USPC | UNIV-PARIS | PSL | GS-ENGINEERING

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S. L. Snowden, C. Heiles, Dimitra Koutroumpa, K. D. Kuntz, Rosine Lallement, et al.. Revisiting the Local Leo Cold Cloud and Revised Constraints on the Local Hot Bubble. The Astrophysical Journal, American Astronomical Society, 2015, 806 (1), pp.119. ⟨10.1088/0004-637X/806/1/119⟩. ⟨insu-01165746⟩

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