ROSAT HRI Observations of Magellanic Cloud Supernova Remnants (I)
Abstract
Analysis of deep ROSAT high resolution imager (HRI) observations of two oxygen-rich supernova remnants (SNRs) in the Magellanic Clouds is described. For N132D, I exploit the limited spectral information provided by the HRI to investigate arcsecond scale spectral variations. I find that there is a region of harder X-ray emission near the southern limb and regions of softer emission near the center and northwestern limb. The remnant is believed to be interacting with a molecular cloud and the harder emission to the south is explained as a result of increased absorption along the line-of-sight there. I argue that the softer emission comes from X-ray emitting material with an enhanced abundance of oxygen. For the second SNR, E0102.2-72.2, the spatial structure is investigated in detail using two-dimensional image fitting techniques. Evidence is found for a ring-like and a spherically symmetric shell-like component both of which were modeled as homogeneous regions. In addition, a significant fraction of the observed flux (∼11%) must come from a resolved clumped component. A comparison with optical and radio imagery is made to provide a physical basis for the components identified in the X-ray analysis. The mass of X-ray emitting gas in the remnant is estimated and a value of ∼75 M⊙ was determined. The dominant uncertainty on this quantity is the extent of unresolved clumping in the X-ray gas. Such cluming would tend to reduce the mass estimate by f1/2, where f is the mean volume filling factor of the gas.
- Publication:
-
The Soft X-ray Cosmos
- Pub Date:
- January 1994
- DOI:
- 10.1063/1.46727
- Bibcode:
- 1994AIPC..313..144H
- Keywords:
-
- 98.58.Mj;
- 95.85.Nv;
- 98.70.Qy;
- Supernova remnants;
- X-ray;
- X-ray sources;
- X-ray bursts