SNR 0104-72.3: A REMNANT OF A TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA IN A STAR-FORMING REGION?
- Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Daejeon 305-348 (Korea, Republic of)
- Department of Physics, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, 136 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8019 (United States)
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
We report our 110 ks Chandra observations of the supernova remnant (SNR) 0104-72.3 in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The X-ray morphology shows two prominent lobes along the northwest-southeast direction and a soft faint arc in the east. Previous low-resolution X-ray images attributed the unresolved emission from the southeastern lobe to a Be/X-ray star. Our high-resolution Chandra data clearly show that this emission is diffuse, shock-heated plasma, with negligible X-ray emission from the Be star. The eastern arc is positionally coincident with a filament seen in optical and infrared observations. Its X-ray spectrum is well fit by plasma of normal SMC abundances, suggesting that it is from shocked ambient gas. The X-ray spectra of the lobes show overabundant Fe, which is interpreted as emission from the reverse-shocked Fe-rich ejecta. The overall spectral characteristics of the lobes and the arc are similar to those of Type Ia SNRs, and we propose that SNR 0104-72.3 is the first case for a robust candidate Type Ia SNR in the SMC. On the other hand, the remnant appears to be interacting with dense clouds toward the east and to be associated with a nearby star-forming region. These features are unusual for a standard Type Ia SNR. Our results suggest an intriguing possibility that the progenitor of SNR 0104-72.3 might have been a white dwarf of a relatively young population.
- OSTI ID:
- 21562753
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 731, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/731/1/L8; ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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