X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy of Oxygen-Rich Ejecta in N132D

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

The brightest supernova remnant in the Magellanic Clouds, N132D, belongs to a rare class of oxygen-rich remnants, consisting of about a dozen objects which show emission from pure heavy-element ejecta in their optical spectra. They are generally thought to originate in explosions of massive stars which produce large amounts of O, although only a tiny fraction of that O is found to emit at optical wavelengths. We report detection of the "missing" O at X-ray wavelengths in a recent deep (100 ksec) Chandra ACIS observation of N132D. Ejecta spectra are dominated by strong lines of Heand H-like O, and Ne and Mg emission enhancements are also apparent. There is a good match between X-rayand optically-emitting ejecta, as shown by comparison between subarcsecond-resolution Chandra and Hubble images. Because optical ejecta are concentrated in a 5 pc radius elliptical expanding shell, most of ejecta X-ray emission also originates in this shell. We interpret these new Chandra observations in a framework of a core-collapse supernova explosion of a massive star within a wind-blown bubble, about 3000 yr ago. We discuss constraints on the initial main-sequence mass of the supernova progenitor posed by detection of large amounts of O in X-rays.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy of Oxygen-Rich Ejecta in N132D does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy of Oxygen-Rich Ejecta in N132D, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy of Oxygen-Rich Ejecta in N132D will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1162250

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.