A kinematic study of central compact objects and their host supernova remnants
- Details
- Published on 12 July 2021
Vol. 651
7. Stellar structure and evolution
A kinematic study of central compact objects and their host supernova remnants
Supernova remnants (SNRs) are the leftovers of supernovae, the results of powerful explosions. In the beginning, their gas expands at ~20,000 km/s. This velocity decreases with time, depending on the density of the surrounding ambient medium, which is snowplowed away. For relatively young SNRs, such as the ones considered in this study (~350 to 27,000 yr), one could expect expansion velocities of ~5,000 km/s. Naively, one might imagine that SNRs do not change on timescales of a human lifetime. However, if observed at high angular resolution (as Chandra observations allow for) and over a sufficiently long temporal base (~10 yr), they can reveal their overall expansion, similar to that of an inflating balloon. A meticulous analysis of the X-ray data is needed to put this expansion on a firm statistical basis. This is done in the work by Meyer and Becker, which has revealed a hint of SNR expansion in two remnants. In addition, the authors were also able to measure or constrain the motion of the neutron star, the supernova leftover, excluding hyper-velocity objects..