Three-Dimensional Fabry-Perot Imaging of Filamentary Structures in CAS A and Nova GK Persei

Previous two-dimensional spectroscopy of Cas A and Nova GK Persei has shown that these objects have significant asymmetries and anisotropies in their filamentary structures, velocity fields and elemental abundance distributions. This work expands our views of these objects into three dimensions using the first complete Fabry-Perot imaging scans of their filamentary emission. The Goddard Astronomical Fabry-Perot Imaging Camera was used at the Michigan-Dartmouth-MIT Observatory 2.4m Hiltner telescope to scan through the Doppler-broadened line profiles of these objects, generating data cubes in alpha -delta -lambda (position-wavelength) space. By assuming object distances and constant radial velocities, these cubes were translated into three-dimensional spatial models. For Cas A, the distribution of the quasi-stationary flocculi was derived from H alpha \ + [NII] lambda lambda 6548, 6583 emission with 150 km s(-1) resolution, and the distribution of the fast-moving knots from [SII] lambda lambda 6717, 6731 emission with 550 km s(-1) resolution. For Nova GK Persei, a model was constructed from H alpha \ + [NII] lambda lambda 6548, 6583 emission with a resolution of 150 km s(-1) .