No Arabic abstract
We present complicated dust structures within multiple regions of the candidate supernova remnant (SNR) the `Tornado (G357.7-0.1) using observations with Spitzer and Herschel. We use Point Process Mapping, PPMAP, to investigate the distribution of dust in the Tornado at a resolution of 8, compared to the native telescope beams of 5-36. We find complex dust structures at multiple temperatures within both the head and the tail of the Tornado, ranging from 15 to 60K. Cool dust in the head forms a shell, with some overlap with the radio emission, which envelopes warm dust at the X-ray peak. Akin to the terrestrial sandy whirlwinds known as `Dust Devils, we find a large mass of dust contained within the Tornado. We derive a total dust mass for the Tornado head of 16.7 solar masses, assuming a dust absorption coefficient of kappa_300 =0.56m^2 kg^1, which can be explained by interstellar material swept up by a SNR expanding in a dense region. The X-ray, infra-red, and radio emission from the Tornado head indicate that this is a SNR. The origin of the tail is more unclear, although we propose that there is an X-ray binary embedded in the SNR, the outflow from which drives into the SNR shell. This interaction forms the helical tail structure in a similar manner to that of the SNR W50 and microquasar SS433.
We present a long-exposure (~10 hr) image of the supernova (SN) remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) obtained with the UKIRT 3.8-m telescope using a narrow band filter centered at 1.644 um emission. The passband contains [Fe II] 1.644 um and [Si I] 1.645 um lines, and our `deep [Fe II]+[Si I] image provides an unprecedented panoramic view of Cas A, showing both shocked and unshocked SN ejecta together with shocked circumstellar medium at subarcsec (~0.7 arcsec or 0.012 pc) resolution. The diffuse emission from the unshocked SN ejecta has a form of clumps, filaments, and arcs, and their spatial distribution correlates well with that of the Spitzer [Si II] infrared emission, suggesting that the emission is likely due to [Si I] line not [Fe II] line as in shocked material. The structure of the optically-invisible western area of Cas A is clearly seen for the first time. The area is filled with many Quasi-Stationary Flocculi (QSFs) and fragments of the disrupted ejecta shell. We suggest that the anomalous radio properties in this area could be due to the increased number of such dense clumps. We identified 309 knots in the deep [Fe II]+[Si I] image and classified them into QSFs and fast-moving knots (FMKs). The total H+He mass of QSFs is ~0.23 Msun, implying that the mass fraction of dense clumps in the progenitors red-supergiant wind is 4--13%. The spatial distribution of QSFs suggests that there had been a highly asymmetric mass loss $10^4$--$10^5$ yr before the SN explosion. The mass of the [Fe II] line-emitting, shocked dense Fe ejecta is ~3x$10^{-5}$ Msun. The comparison with the ionic S-line dominated Hubble Space Telescope WFC3/IR image suggests that the outermost FMKs in the southeastern area are Fe-rich.
A compact complex of line emission filaments in the galactic plane has the appearance of those expected of an evolved supernova remnant though non-thermal radio and X-ray emission have not yet been detected. This optical emission line region has now been observed with deep imagery and both low and high-dispersion spectroscopy. Diagnostic diagrams of the line intensities from the present spectra and the new kinematical observations both point to a supernova origin. However, several features of the nebular complex still require an explanation within this interpretation.
We report on the proper motions of Balmer-dominated filaments in Keplers supernova remnant using high resolution images obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope at two epochs separated by about 10 years. We use the improved proper motion measurements and revised values of shock velocities to derive a distance to Kepler of 5.1 [+0.8, -0.7] kpc. The main shock around the northern rim of the remnant has a typical speed of 1690 km/s and is encountering material with densities of about 8 cm^-3. We find evidence for the variation of shock properties over small spatial scales, including differences in the driving pressures as the shock wraps around a curved cloud surface. We find that the Balmer filaments ahead of the ejecta knot on the northwest boundary of the remnant are becoming fainter and more diffuse. We also find that the Balmer filaments associated with circumstellar material in the interior regions of the remnant are due to shocks with significantly lower velocities and that the brightness variations among these filaments trace the density distribution of the material, which may have a disk-like geometry.
In this paper we discuss the radio continuum and X-ray properties of the so-far poorly studied Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) G5.9+3.1. We present the radio spectral energy distribution (SED) of the Galactic SNR G5.9+3.1 obtained with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). Combining these new observations with the surveys at other radio continuum frequencies, we discuss the integrated radio continuum spectrum of this particular remnant. We have also analyzed an archival XMM-Newton observation, which represents the first detection of X-ray emission from this remnant. The SNR SED is very well explained by a simple power-law relation. The synchrotron radio spectral index of G5.9+3.1, is estimated to be 0.42$pm$0.03 and the integrated flux density at 1GHz to be around 2.7Jy. Furthermore, we propose that the identified point radio source, located centrally inside the SNR shell, is most probably a compact remnant of the supernova explosion. The shell-like X-ray morphology of G5.9+3.1 as revealed by XMM-Newton broadly matches the spatial distribution of the radio emission, where the radio-bright eastern and western rims are also readily detected in the X-ray while the radio-weak northern and southern rims are weak or absent in the X-ray. Extracted MOS1+MOS2+PN spectra from the whole SNR as well as the north, east, and west rims of the SNR are fit successfully with an optically thin thermal plasma model in collisional ionization equilibrium with a column density N_H~0.80x$10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$ and fitted temperatures spanning the range kT~0.14-0.23keV for all of the regions. The derived electron number densities n_e for the whole SNR and the rims are also roughly comparable (ranging from ~$0.20f^{-1/2}$ cm$^{-3}$ to ~$0.40f^{-1/2}$ cm$^{-3}$, where f is the volume filling factor). We also estimate the swept-up mass of the X-ray emitting plasma associated with G5.9+3.1 to be ~$46f^{-1/2}M_{odot}$.
We present 1 to 10GHz radio continuum flux density, spectral index, polarisation and Rotation Measure (RM) images of the youngest known Galactic Supernova Remnant (SNR) G1.9+0.3, using observations from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). We have conducted an expansion study spanning 8 epochs between 1984 and 2017, yielding results consistent with previous expansion studies of G1.9+0.3. We find a mean radio continuum expansion rate of ($0.78 pm 0.09$) per cent year$^{-1}$ (or $sim8900$ km s$^{-1}$ at an assumed distance of 8.5 kpc), although the expansion rate varies across the SNR perimeter. In the case of the most recent epoch between 2016 and 2017, we observe faster-than-expected expansion of the northern region. We find a global spectral index for G1.9+0.3 of $-0.81pm0.02$ (76 MHz$-$10 GHz). Towards the northern region, however, the radio spectrum is observed to steepen significantly ($sim -$1). Towards the two so called (east & west) ears of G1.9+0.3, we find very different RM values of 400-600 rad m$^{2}$ and 100-200 rad m$^{2}$ respectively. The fractional polarisation of the radio continuum emission reaches (19 $pm$ 2)~per~cent, consistent with other, slightly older, SNRs such as Cas~A.