Amazing stuff!
"... It is the most unusual remnant that researchers have ever found, and could point to a rare type of supernova that astronomers have long struggled to explain. ...
In 2013, amateur astronomer Dana Patchick discovered the object in archived images from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. Over the next decade, several teams studied the remnant, known as Pa 30, but the results became only more and more baffling. ...
found an extremely unusual star in 2019 at the dead center of Pa 302. That star had a surface temperature of roughly 200,000 kelvin, with a stellar wind travelling outward at 16,000 kilometres per second ...
In 2013, amateur astronomer Dana Patchick discovered the object in archived images from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. Over the next decade, several teams studied the remnant, known as Pa 30, but the results became only more and more baffling. ...
found an extremely unusual star in 2019 at the dead center of Pa 302. That star had a surface temperature of roughly 200,000 kelvin, with a stellar wind travelling outward at 16,000 kilometres per second ...
Pa 30 was again the subject of intrigue in 2021 ... proposed that the remnant is the aftermath of a supernova that lit up the sky nearly 850 years ago, in 1181. Chinese and Japanese astronomers observed the object for roughly six months before it faded.
During their examination of Pa 30, ... noted that the remnant’s emission spectrum contained a particular line associated with the element sulfur. ... later imaged the remnant with an optical filter that is sensitive to that line using the 2.4-metre Hiltner Telescope at the Michigan–Dartmouth–MIT Observatory at Kitt Peak, Arizona.
The data they collected not only helped to confirm that Pa 30 is indeed what’s left of the supernova observed in 1181, but also yielded an image of the remnant unlike any other. It contains hundreds of fine filaments radiating outwards. ..."
The data they collected not only helped to confirm that Pa 30 is indeed what’s left of the supernova observed in 1181, but also yielded an image of the remnant unlike any other. It contains hundreds of fine filaments radiating outwards. ..."
From the abstract:
"A newly recognized young Galactic SN remnant, Pa 30 (G123.1+4.6), centered on a hot central star with a ~16,000 km/s wind velocity has recently been proposed to be the result of a double-degenerate merger leading to a SN Iax event associated with the guest star of 1181 CE. Here we present deep optical [S II] 6716,6731 images of Pa 30 which reveal an extraordinary and highly structured nebula 170" in diameter with dozens of long (5" - 20") radially aligned filaments with a convergence point near the hot central star. Optical spectra of filaments indicate a peak expansion velocity ~1100 km/s with electron densities of 100 to 700 cm^-3, and a thick shell-like structure resembling its appearance in 22 micron WISE images. No H-alpha emission was seen (6716/H-alpha >8), with the only other line emission detected being faint [Ar III] 7136 suggesting a S, Ar-rich but H-poor remnant. The nebula's angular size, estimated 2.3 kpc distance, and 1100 km/s expansion velocity are consistent with an explosion date around 1181 CE. The remnant's unusual appearance may be due to the photoionization of wind-driven ejecta due to clump-wind interactions caused by the central star's high-luminosity wind."
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