Discovery of extended VHE gamma-ray emission from the asymmetric pulsar wind nebula in MSH 15-52 with HESS

The Supernova Remnant MSH 15-52 has been observed in very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays using the HESS 4-telescope array located in Namibia. A gamma-ray signal is detected at the 25 sigma level during an exposure of 22.1 h live time. The image reveals an elliptically shaped emission region around the pulsar PSRB1509 - 58, with semi-major axis similar to 6' in the NW-SE direction and semi-minor axis similar to 2'. This morphology coincides with the diffuse pulsar wind nebula as observed at X-ray energies by ROSAT. The overall energy spectrum from 280 GeV up to 40 TeV can be fitted by a power law with photon index Gamma = 2.27 +/- 0.03(stat) +/- 0.20(syst). The detected emission can be plausibly explained by inverse Compton scattering of accelerated relativistic electrons with soft photons.