Nucleosynthetic layers in the shocked ejecta of Cassiopeia A

Isensee, Karl, Olmschenk, Greg, Rudnick, Lawrence, DeLaney, Tracey, Rho, Jeonghee, Smith, J. D., Reach, William T., Kozasa, Takashi and Gomez, Haley Louise ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3398-0052 2012. Nucleosynthetic layers in the shocked ejecta of Cassiopeia A. The Astrophysical Journal 757 (2) , 126. 10.1088/0004-637X/757/2/126

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

We present a 3-dimensional analysis of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A using high resolution spectra from the Spitzer Space Telescope. We observe supernova ejecta both immediately before and during the shock-ejecta interaction. We determine that the reverse shock of the remnant is spherical to within 7%, although the center of this sphere is offset from the geometric center of the remnant by 810 km/s. We determine that the velocity width of the nucleosynthetic layers is approximately 1000 km/s over 4000 square arcsecond regions, although the velocity width of a layer along any individual line of sight is <250 km/s. Si and O, which come from different nucleosynthetic layers in the progenitor star, are observed to be coincident in velocity space in some directions, but segregated by up to approximately 500 km/s in other directions. We compare these observations of the nucleosynthetic layers to predictions from supernova explosion models in an attempt to constrain such models. Finally, we observe small-scale, corrugated velocity structures that are likely caused during the supernova explosion itself, rather than hundreds of years later by dynamical instabilities at the remnant's reverse shock.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy
Uncontrolled Keywords:	infrared: ISM; ISM: individual objects (Cassiopeia A); ISM: supernova remnants; supernovae: general; X-rays: ISM
Publisher:	IOP Science
ISSN:	0004-637X
Last Modified:	24 Oct 2022 10:20
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/43958

Citation Data

Cited 15 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item