Solar Wind Charge Exchange and Properties of the Local Hot Bubble from the DXL Mission

Dr Wenhao Liu (UAH)

The diffuse X-ray background was discovered at the dawn of X-ray astronomy and has been extensively studied. It was believed that a significant fraction of the X-ray foreground emission in the 1/4 keV band originates  in an irregularly shaped cavity which contains the Sun and has been dubbed as local hot bubble (LHB). However, recent studies have shown that X-ray emission in this band can also originate within the solar system, via a process called Solar Wind Charge eXchange (SWCX).  Diffuse X-rays from the Local Galaxy (DXL) is a sounding rocket mission designed to quantify and characterize the contribution of  SWCX to the diffuse X-ray background and study the properties of the local hot bubble (LHB). The DXL mission measured the spatial  signature of SWCX emission due to the Helium focusing core. A direct comparison of DXL and Rosat All Sky Survey (RASS) data allowed  us to quantify the SWCX contribution to all 6 RASS bands. In this talk I will discuss the results from the DXL mission, SWCX contributions to the diffuse X-ray background, and the properties of LHB after removing the SWCX contamination.