Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




STELLAR CHEMISTRY
The curious shape of a supernova remnant in a star-forming cloud
by Staff Writers
Paris (ESA) Nov 16, 2012


This image shows a composite view of supernova remnant W44 (SNR W44), a prime example of the interaction between the remains of a supernova and the dense interstellar material around it. The composite image is based on data from ESA's Herschel and XMM-Newton space observatories, which observed the source at far-infrared and X-ray wavelengths, respectively. Copyright: ESA/PACS/SPIRE/Quang Nguyen Luong and Frederique Motte, HOBYS Key Program consortium (far-infrared); ESA/XMM-Newton (X-rays)

Data from two ESA missions combine in a new view of the peculiar supernova remnant W44. The filamentary shell-like structure, detected by the Herschel Space Observatory at far-infrared wavelengths, is filled with hot gas that shines brightly in X-rays, as seen by the XMM-Newton X-ray Observatory. This composite image highlights how the complex morphology of this remnant has been shaped by its interaction with its parent molecular cloud, the star-forming region W48.

The most massive stars end their life cycles as supernovae - spectacular explosions that release enormous amounts of energy and matter into the surrounding interstellar space.

These powerful events leave behind supernova remnants, expanding clouds of hot gas and highly-energetic particles that keep shining brightly across the electromagnetic spectrum for thousands of years after the stellar explosion. Supernova remnants display a variety of shapes and features that are often heavily influenced by the environment into which the ejected material is expanding.

The supernova remnant W44 (SNR W44) is a prime example of the interaction between the remains of a supernova and the dense interstellar material around it. The composite image from Herschel and XMM-Newton illustrates that SNR W44 consists of an asymmetric expanding shell about 100 light-years across that is filled with hot, X-ray emitting gas. Around 10 000 light-years from us, SNR W44 is located in the molecular cloud complex known as W48, a rich star-forming region where a multitude of massive stars are being born.

The Herschel view of SNR W44 shows particular features of the supernova remnant interacting with its parent molecular cloud: just above the centre of the image, the shell is impacting the arc-shaped bright feature to the right.

This object, known as G34.8-0.7, is an HII region - a pocket of gas that is being energised and ionised by the action of a nearby young, massive star. Traces of dust present in the HII region's gas are also being heated up, making it shine brightly at the shortest wavelengths probed by Herschel (70 microns, shown in violet in this image).

Most supernova remnants either possess a glowing shell created by the ejecta as they sweep up interstellar material, or the remnant has a more diffuse, nebula-like structure that is usually powered by the wind of a pulsar - a spinning neutron star which originates from the core of the exploded star. SNR W44 is one of the few supernova remnants that overlaps between these two classes. It is therefore classified as a mixed-morphology supernova remnant.

The expanding shell can be seen as the large violet bubble with filamentary texture occupying the left half of the image. As the shell blasts outwards, shock waves heat up the surrounding material, raising the temperature of dust particles present there to about 100 K. This causes them to radiate at the shortest of the wavelengths probed by Herschel.

With a temperature of several million K, the hot gas inside the bubble gives off large amounts of X-rays. These appear in the image as the dark blue and light blue clouds that fill the bubble, and correspond to lower-energy (1.2-2 keV) and higher-energy (2-8 keV) X-rays detected by XMM-Newton.

As in other mixed-morphology supernova remnants, the presence of hot gas inside a shell that is expanding and cooling down is quite puzzling. One of the possible explanations is linked to the interaction between the remnant and its clumpy environment of gas and dust clouds. Dense and cool cloudlets from the surroundings could be swept over by the expanding shell and evaporate once inside it, due to the higher temperature, contributing to replenishing the remnant's interior with gas.

Also visible in SNR W44 is the pulsar PSR 1853+01, which most likely derives from the core of the supernova's progenitor star. The pulsar, which shines brightly both in X-rays and radio waves, can be seen in the XMM-Newton image as the bright point source towards the top left of the remnant.

The age of the remnant was estimated by measuring how much the pulsar's spin slows down over time and is believed to be a relatively young 20 000 years. The pulsar drives a wind of highly energetic particles but this represents only a minor contribution to the remnant's X-ray emission.

Two HII regions stand out in violet in the image, showing the intense activity of star formation in W48. These are G035.1387-00.7622 in the upper part of the image to the right, and G35.0-0.5 just to the right of the image centre. The bright flecks scattered across the image are denser clumps in the turbulent cloud medium and are the seeds of future massive stars.

In the lower left corner of the image, the diffuse glow corresponds to emission from warm dust in the Galactic Plane, the disc-like structure that contains most of the stars and star-forming clouds in our Galaxy, the Milky Way.

.


Related Links
Herschel Space Observatory
Stellar Chemistry, The Universe And All Within It






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Astronomers develop new method to determine neutron star mass
Paris (ESA) Nov 12, 2012
Astronomers have used INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton to look into the neutron star in IGR J17252-3616, a highly obscured X-ray binary system. The data show how the neutron star, which is being fuelled by the stellar wind from its companion, is substantially deflecting the flow of the accreted material. Comparison with numerical simulations provides an estimate of the neutron star's mass, suggesting a n ... read more


STELLAR CHEMISTRY
China's Chang'e-3 to land on moon next year

Moon crater yields impact clues

Study: Moon basin formed by giant impact

NASA's LADEE Spacecraft Gets Final Science Instrument Installed

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Mars radiation levels not lethal to humans

NASA Rover Providing New Weather and Radiation Data About Mars

Rover's 'SAM' Lab Instrument Suite Tastes Soil

Survey At 'Matijevic Hill' Wrapping Up

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
SciTechTalk: All work and no play?

Get some bed rest - all 21 days of it

Latest China military hardware displayed at airshow

Obama Win Keeps NASA's Space Plans on Course

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Mr Xi in Space

China plans manned space launch in 2013: state media

China to launch manned spacecraft

Tiangong 1 Parked And Waiting As Shenzhou 10 Mission Prep Continues

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Space station command changes

Russia restores space contact after cable rupture

Russia loses contact with satellites, space station

Cut in Russian link to space station not serious: NASA

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Arianespace's fourth Spaceport mission with Soyuz ready for fueling

Ariane 5's sixth launch of 2012

Ariane 5 is poised for Arianespace's launch with the EUTELSAT 21B and Star One C3 satellites

Ariane 5 orbits EUTELSAT 21B and Star One C3 satellites

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Lowell astronomer, collaborators point the way for exoplanet search

A Reborn Planetary Nebula

Lost in Space: Rogue Planet Spotted?

Lowell Astronomer, Collaborators Point The Way For Exoplanet Search

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Andrews Space To Manufacture Sinclair Rods

Raytheon submits Space Fence proposal to the USAF

Larger version of Kindle Fire tablet unleashed

Lockheed Martin Submits Space Fence Radar Proposal to USAF to Detect and Track Orbital Objects




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement