SUPERNOVA EJECTA IN THE YOUNGEST GALACTIC SUPERNOVA REMNANT G1.9+0.3
- Department of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-8202 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States)
- Cavendish Laboratory, 19 J.J. Thomson Ave., Cambridge CB3 0HE (United Kingdom)
- NASA/GSFC, Code 660, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708 (United States)
G1.9+0.3 is the youngest known Galactic supernova remnant (SNR), with an estimated supernova (SN) explosion date of {approx}1900, and most likely located near the Galactic center. Only the outermost ejecta layers with free-expansion velocities {approx}>18,000 km s{sup -1} have been shocked so far in this dynamically young, likely Type Ia SNR. A long (980 ks) Chandra observation in 2011 allowed spatially resolved spectroscopy of heavy-element ejecta. We denoised Chandra data with the spatio-spectral method of Krishnamurthy et al., and used a wavelet-based technique to spatially localize thermal emission produced by intermediate-mass elements (IMEs; Si and S) and iron. The spatial distribution of both IMEs and Fe is extremely asymmetric, with the strongest ejecta emission in the northern rim. Fe K{alpha} emission is particularly prominent there, and fits with thermal models indicate strongly oversolar Fe abundances. In a localized, outlying region in the northern rim, IMEs are less abundant than Fe, indicating that undiluted Fe-group elements (including {sup 56}Ni) with velocities >18,000 km s{sup -1} were ejected by this SN. However, in the inner west rim, we find Si- and S-rich ejecta without any traces of Fe, so high-velocity products of O-burning were also ejected. G1.9+0.3 appears similar to energetic Type Ia SNe such as SN 2010jn where iron-group elements at such high free-expansion velocities have been recently detected. The pronounced asymmetry in the ejecta distribution and abundance inhomogeneities are best explained by a strongly asymmetric SN explosion, similar to those produced in some recent three-dimensional delayed-detonation Type Ia models.
- OSTI ID:
- 22118718
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 771, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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