Relativistic Electron Populations in Cassiopeia A

Details Relativistic Electron Populations in Cassiopeia A Relativistic Electron Populations in Cassiopeia A

Jun 1995

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995adil...ma...01a&link_type=abstract

NCSA Astronomy Digital Image Library

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Brightness Distribution, Cassiopeia A, Electron Acceleration, Particle Acceleration, Radiant Flux Density, Radio Emission, Relativistic Particles, Spectral Energy Distribution, Stellar Radiation, Supernova Remnants, Very Large Array (Vla)

Scientific paper

The radio structure of the galactic supernova remnant Cas A is complex and is distributed over a variety of spatial scales. A few major components are apparent. The most prominent is a bright ring of radio emission at a radius of approximately 110" (1.7 pc at a distance of 2.9 pc). This bright ring is generally associated with a region of high magnetic field, amplified through Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities which develop at the contact surface between the comparatively dense supernova ejecta and the shock-heated interstellar medium as the remnant begins to decelerate. The bright ring has an expansion age of 950 yr, much longer than that of the fast-moving optical knots situated at a similar radius (300 yr), indicating that a substantial deceleration of the radio-emitting ejecta has already occurred. A plateau, or outer shell, of material is seen out to a radius of 140". A set of eleven paraboloidal features or bow shocks may indicate clumps of fast-moving ejecta which have penetrated the decelerated shell and are generating bow shocks in the material beyond the shells. The remnant is also covered by a network of faint filamentation, the nature of which is still unclear. These may be actual filaments of compressed gas, condensed under some type of cooling or dynamical instability, or perhaps they are features of numerous intersecting shock waves propagating through the remnant.

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