No Arabic abstract
Wide-field Halpha images of the radio faint Galactic supernova remnant G182.4+4.2 reveal a surprisingly extensive and complex emission structure, with an unusual series of broad and diffuse filaments along the remnants southwestern limb. Deep [O III] 5007 images reveal no appreciable remnant emission with the exception of a single filament coincident with the westernmost of the broad southwest filaments. The near total absence of [O III] emission suggests the majority of the remnants optical emission arises from relatively slow shocks (<70 km/s), consistent with little or no associated X-ray emission. Low-dispersion optical spectra of several regions in the remnants main emission structure confirm a lack of appreciable [O III] emission and indicate [S II]/Halpha line ratios of 0.73 - 1.03, consistent with a shock-heated origin. We find G182.4+4.2 to be a relatively large (d~50 pc at 4 kpc) and much older (age ~40 kyr) supernova remnant than previously estimated, whose weak radio and X-ray emissions are related to its age, low shock velocity, and location in a low density region some 12 kpc out from the Galactic centre.
Narrow passband optical images of the large Galactic supernova remnant G179.0+2.6 reveal a faint but nearly complete emission shell dominated by strong [O III] 4959,5007 A line emission. The remnants optical emission, which consists of both diffuse and filamentary features, is brightest along its southern and northeastern limbs. Deep H-alpha images detect little coincidence emission indicating an unusually high [O III]/H-alpha emission ratio for such a large and apparently old remnant. Low-dispersion optical spectra of several regions confirm large [O III]/H-alpha line ratios with typical values around 10. The dominance of [O III] emission for the majority of the remnants optical filaments suggests shock velocities above 100 km/s are present throughout most of the remnant, likely reflecting a relatively low density ambient ISM. The remnants unusually strong [O III] emission adds to the remnants interesting set of properties which include a thick radio emission shell, radial polarization of its radio emission like that typically seen in young supernova remnants, and an unusually slow-rotating gamma-ray pulsar with a characteristic spin-down age ~50 kyr.
Wide-field H-alpha images of the Galactic plane have revealed a new supernova remnant (SNR) nearly three degrees in diameter centred at l = 107.0, b = +9.0. Deep and higher resolution H-alpha and [O III] 5007 Ang images show dozens of H-alpha filaments along the remnants northern, western, and southwestern limbs, but few [O III] bright filaments. The nebula is well detected in the H-alpha Virginia Tech Spectral-Line Survey images, with many of its brighter filaments even visible on Digital Sky Survey images. Low-dispersion spectra of several filaments show either Balmer dominated, non-radiative filaments or the more common SNR radiative filaments with [S II]/H-alpha ratios above 0.5, consistent with shock-heated line emission. Emission line ratios suggest shock velocities ranging from <70 km/s along its western limb to ~100 km/s along its northwestern boundary. While no associated X-ray emission is seen in ROSAT images, faint 1420 MHz radio emission appears coincident with its western and northern limbs. Based on an analysis of the remnants spatially resolved H-alpha and [O III] emissions, we estimate the remnants distance around 1.5 - 2.0 kpc implying a physically large (dia.= 75 - 100 pc) and old (90 - 110 x 10^3 yr) SNR in its post-Sedov radiative phase of evolution expanding into a low density interstellar medium (n = 0.05 - 0.2 cm^-3) and lying some 250 - 300 pc above the Galactic plane.
We report the VLA detection of the radio counterpart of the X-ray object referred to as the Cannonball, which has been proposed to be the remnant neutron star resulting from the creation of the Galactic Center supernova remnant, Sagittarius A East. The radio object was detected both in our new VLA image from observations in 2012 at 5.5 GHz and in archival VLA images from observations in 1987 at 4.75 GHz and in the period from 1990 to 2002 at 8.31 GHz. The radio morphology of this object is characterized as a compact, partially resolved point source located at the northern tip of a radio tongue similar to the X-ray structure observed by Chandra. Behind the Cannonball, a radio counterpart to the X-ray plume is observed. This object consists of a broad radio plume with a size of 30arcsec$times$15arcsec, followed by a linear tail having a length of 30arcsec. The compact head and broad plume sources appear to have relatively flat spectra ($propto u^alpha$) with mean values of $alpha=-0.44pm0.08$ and $-0.10pm0.02$, respectively; and the linear tail shows a steep spectrum with the mean value of $-1.94pm0.05$. The total radio luminosity integrated from these components is $sim8times10^{33}$ erg s$^{-1}$, while the emission from the head and tongue amounts for only $sim1.5times10^{31}$ erg s$^{-1}$. Based on the images obtained from the two epochs observations at 5 GHz, we infer the proper motion of the object: $mu_alpha = 0.001 pm0.003$ arcsec yr$^{-1}$ and $mu_delta = 0.013 pm0.003$ arcsec yr$^{-1}$. With an implied velocity of 500 km s$^{-1}$, a plausible model can be constructed in which a runaway neutron star surrounded by a pulsar wind nebula was created in the event that produced Sgr A East. The inferred age of this object, assuming that its origin coincides with the center of Sgr A East, is approximately 9000 years.
We performed Herschel HIFI, PACS and SPIRE observations towards the molecular cloud interacting supernova remnant G349.7+0.2. An extremely broad emission line was detected at 557 GHz from the ground state transition 1_{10}-1_{01} of ortho-water. This water line can be separated into three velocity components with widths of 144, 27 and 4 km/s. The 144 km/s component is the broadest water line detected to date in the literature. This extremely broad line width shows importance of probing shock dynamics. PACS observations revealed 3 additional ortho-water lines, as well as numerous high-J carbon monoxide (CO) lines. No para-water lines were detected. The extremely broad water line is indicative of a high velocity shock, which is supported by the observed CO rotational diagram that was reproduced with a J-shock model with a density of 10^4 cm^{-3} and a shock velocity of 80 km/s. Two far-infrared fine-structure lines, [O~I] at 145 micron and [C~II] line at 157 micron, are also consistent with the high velocity J-shock model. The extremely broad water line could be simply from short-lived molecules that have not been destroyed in high velocity J-shocks; however, it may be from more complicated geometry such as high-velocity water bullets or a shell expanding in high velocity. We estimate the CO and H2O densities, column densities, and temperatures by comparison with RADEX and detailed shock models. Detection of Extremely Broad Water Emission from the molecular cloud interacting Supernova Remnant G349.7+0.2
Hadronic gamma-ray emission from supernova remnants (SNRs) is an important tool to test shock acceleration of cosmic ray protons. Tycho is one of nearly a dozen Galactic SNRs which are suggested to emit hadronic gamma-ray emission. Among them, however, it is the only one in which the hadronic emission is proposed to arise from the interaction with low-density (~0.3 cm^{-3}) ambient medium. Here we present an alternative hadronic explanation with a modest conversion efficiency (of order 1%) for this young remnant. With such an efficiency, a normal electron-proton ratio (of order 10^{-2}) is derived from the radio and X-ray synchrotron spectra and an average ambient density that is at least one-order-of-magnitude higher is derived from the hadronic gamma-ray flux. This result is consistent with the multi-band evidence of the presence of dense medium from the north to the east of the Tycho SNR. The SNR-cloud association, in combination with the HI absorption data, helps to constrain the so-far controversial distance to Tycho and leads to an estimate of 2.5 kpc.