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Yutaka Fujita, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Hiroaki Takahashi, Fumio Takahara, Suzaku Observation of Diffuse X-Ray Emission from the Open Cluster Westerlund 2: a Hypernova Remnant?, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, Volume 61, Issue 6, 25 December 2009, Pages 1229–1235, https://doi.org/10.1093/pasj/61.6.1229
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Abstract
We present an analysis of Suzaku observations of the young open cluster Westerlund 2, which is filled with diffuse X-ray emission. We found that the emission consists of three thermal components, or two thermal and one non-thermal components. The upper limit of the energy flux of the non-thermal component is smaller than that in the TeV band observed with H.E.S.S. This may indicate that active particle acceleration has stopped in this cluster, and that the accelerated electrons have already cooled. The gamma-ray emission observed with H.E.S.S. is likely to come from high-energy protons, which hardly cool, in contrast with electrons. The metal abundances of the diffuse X-ray gas may indicate the explosion of a massive star in the past.