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Observational Aspects of Supernova Remnants
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
Abstract
A supernova event may lead to four observable features: a pulsar, an expanding nebulosity, a radio source and an X-ray source. The great majority of supernovae do not produce observable pulsars, and discussion is restricted largely to the other features. An increasing number of X-ray sources is now being detected and the structure and spectrum of the stronger sources investigated; these observations yield information about the physical state of the remnant. Recently, 11 new optical and radio remnants have been found in the Magellanic Clouds. These have led to a good determination of the Σ – D relation, thus providing a more reliable distance scale for galactic SNR, but have also shown that a one-to-one correspondence between a radio source and a supernova event is questionable. When these remnants are combined with corrected earlier catalogues and a new southern catalogue containing a high proportion of distant old remnants the number of known SNR is about 150. The evolution of galactic SNR may be investigated empirically, and although the derived rate of occurrence is very uncertain a rate of about 2 supernovae per century is consistent with most determinations. The galactic SNR are distributed rather like the radio disc emission, but more closely confined to the galactic plane, and selected SNR show evidence of a spiral pattern.
- Type
- Part 3: Supernova Remnants
- Information
- Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 60: Galactic Radio Astronomy , 1974 , pp. 311 - 327
- Copyright
- Copyright © Reidel 1974
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