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Title: Global far-ultraviolet properties of the Cygnus Loop

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
; ; ;  [1]; ;  [2];  [3]
  1. Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Daejeon 305-348 (Korea, Republic of)
  2. Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701 (Korea, Republic of)
  3. Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94702 (United States)

We present the C III λ977, O VI λλ1032, 1038 and N IV] λ1486 emission line maps of the Cygnus Loop, obtained with the newly processed data of the Spectroscopy of Plasma Evolution from Astrophysical Radiation (SPEAR; also known as FIMS) mission. In addition, the Si IV+O IV] line complexes around 1400 Å are resolved into two separate emission lines whose intensity demonstrates a relatively high Si IV region that was predicted in the previous study. The morphological similarity between the O VI and X-ray images, as well as a comparison of the O VI intensity with the value expected from the X-ray results, indicates that large portions of the observed O VI emissions could be produced from X-ray emitting gas. Comparisons of the far-ultraviolet (FUV) images with the optical and H I 21 cm images reveal spatial variations of shock-velocity populations and high FUV extinction in the direction of a previously identified H I cloud. By calculating the FUV line ratios for several subregions of the Cygnus Loop, we investigate the spatial variation of the population of radiative shock velocities as well as the effects of resonance scattering, X-ray emitting gas, and nonradiative shocks. The FUV and X-ray luminosity comparisons between the Cygnus Loop and the Vela supernova remnant suggest that the fraction of shocks in the early evolutionary stages is much larger in the Cygnus Loop.

OSTI ID:
22351529
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 784, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English