7 - Morphology of supernova remnants

Summary

Abstract

Emission morphologies of young, Galactic supernova remnants can be used for investigating SN expansion dynamics, elemental distributions, and progenitor mass loss history and properties at the time of outburst. The remnants of two suspected Galactic Type Ia SNe, Tycho and SN 1006, show spherical morphologies, with Si-rich ejecta near the forward shock front suggestive of significant mixing. Searches for possible surviving binary companions near the centers of these remnants may help clarify the progenitor binary system(s) involved in SNe Ia. On the other hand, high mass, core collapse remnants, such as SNR 1987A and Cas A, exhibit strongly asymmetrical morphologies, with Cas A showing some evidence for bipolar ejecta jets. However, it is currently unclear if such ejecta jets are consistent with any of the recently proposed jet induced SN explosion models.

Introduction

For a workshop on the 3-D signatures of stellar explosions, it seems worth-while to first explain why one might be interested in the properties of supernova remnants (SNRs). Even the youngest Galactic SN remnants are hundreds and even thousands of years removed from the actual SN events, so SNRs may seem at first to be relatively poor tools for any meaningful testing of SN models or explosion theories. However, young supernova remnants, and especially the nearby Galactic ones, offer chemical and kinematic data on SN ejecta on much finer spatial scales than possible from extragalactic SN/SNR investigations.