THE FIRST REPORTED INFRARED EMISSION FROM THE SN 1006 REMNANT
- Department of Physics, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT 05753 (United States)
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
- Physics Department, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Astronomy and Geosciences, Towson University, Towson, MD 21252 (United States)
- Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
We report results of infrared imaging and spectroscopic observations of the SN 1006 remnant, carried out with the Spitzer Space Telescope. The 24 {mu}m image from Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer clearly shows faint filamentary emission along the northwest rim of the remnant shell, nearly coincident with the Balmer filaments that delineate the present position of the expanding shock. The 24 {mu}m emission traces the Balmer filaments almost perfectly but lies a few arcsec within, indicating an origin in interstellar dust heated by the shock. Subsequent decline in the IR behind the shock is presumably due largely to grain destruction through sputtering. The emission drops far more rapidly than current models predict, however, even for a higher proportion of small grains than would be found closer to the Galactic plane. The rapid drop may result in part from a grain density that has always been lower-a relic effect from an earlier epoch when the shock was encountering a lower density-but higher grain destruction rates still seem to be required. Spectra from three positions along the NW filament from the Infrared Spectrometer instrument all show only a featureless continuum, consistent with thermal emission from warm dust. The dust-to-gas mass ratio in the pre-shock interstellar medium (ISM) is lower than that expected for the Galactic ISM-as has also been observed in the analysis of IR emission from other supernova remnants, but whose cause remains unclear. As with other Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) remnants, SN 1006 shows no evidence for dust grain formation in the SN ejecta.
- OSTI ID:
- 22167736
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 764, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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