Pulsar Wind Nebula

The Pulsar Wind Nebulae (PWNe) are energetic sources powered by highly magnetized rotating neutron stars/pulsars and represent the most abundant class of Galactic very high energy (E>0.1 TeV) sources. PWNs are very effective particle accelerators and shine in very high energy gamma-rays via Inverse Compton mechanism. This is the mechanism according to which a photon is boosted to gamma-ray energies by the interaction with accelerated particles, usually electrons/positrons. Since PWNe have relatively weak magnetic fields, they are able to produce photons up to tens of TeV the range covered by ASTRI, making them a primary target for the mini array.

Composite image of the Crab Nebula showing the X-ray data from Chandra X-ray Observatory in blue and optical data from Hubble Space Telescope in red.