A Chandra Observation of the Luminous Northeastern Rim of the Galactic Supernova Remnant W28 (G6.4-0.1): Spatially-Resolved Spectroscopic Analysis and Radial Fitting
Abstract
We present an analysis of a 50 kilosecond observation made with the Chandra X-ray Observatory of the northeastern rim of the Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) W28 (G6.4-0.1). W28 is well-known as the archetypical Galactic mixed-morphology SNR (MMSNRs): MMSNRs are a class of sources that feature a contrasting shell-like radio morphology with a center-filled X-ray morphology. The origin of these contrasting morphologies remains elusive: because MMSNRs all appear to be interacting strongly with ambient molecular clouds, it is suspected that these clouds and these interactions play a prominent role in dictating the appearance of these differing morphologies. The northeastern rim of W28 is particularly remarkable in that it is the only feature of the whole SNR that is detected in X-ray, optical and radio wavelengths: it is also the site of a high number density of hydroxyl (OH) masers which are well-known signposts of interactions between SNRs and molecular clouds. Our observation presented here features the highest angular resolution in X-ray ever attained in the study of this rim. We have performed spatially-resolved X-ray spectroscopy of this rim to search for variations in the spectral properties of individual features. We have also performed radial fitting to the X-ray emission to estimate the volume occupied by the X-ray emitting material.
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #229
- Pub Date:
- January 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AAS...22943410P