A supernova remnant (SNR) is the structure resulting from the explosion of a star in a supernova. The supernova remnant is bounded by an expanding shock wave, and consists of ejected material expanding from the explosion, and the interstellar material it sweeps up and shocks along the way.
There are two common routes to a supernova: either a massive star may run out of fuel, ceasing to generate fusion energy in its core, and collapsing inward under the force of its own gravity to form a neutron star or a black hole; or a white dwarf star may accrete material from a companion star until it reaches a critical mass and undergoes a thermonuclear explosion.
In either case, the resulting supernova explosion expels much or all of the stellar material with velocities as much as 10% the speed of light (or approximately 30,000 km/s). These speeds are highly supersonic, so a strong shock wave forms ahead of the ejecta. That heats the upstream plasma up to temperatures well above millions of K. The shock continuously slows down over time as it sweeps up the ambient medium, but it can expand over hundreds or thousands of years and over tens of parsecs before its speed falls below the local sound speed.
One of the best observed young supernova remnants was formed by SN 1987A, a supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud that was observed in February 1987. Other well-known supernova remnants include the Crab Nebula; Tycho, the remnant of SN 1572, named after Tycho Brahe who recorded the brightness of its original explosion; and Kepler, the remnant of SN 1604, named after Johannes Kepler. The youngest known remnant in our galaxy is G1.9+0.3, discovered in the galactic center.[1]
Stages
An SNR passes through the following stages as it expands:[2]
Free expansion of the ejecta, until they sweep up their own weight in circumstellar or interstellar medium. This can last tens to a few hundred years depending on the density of the surrounding gas.
Sweeping up of a shell of shocked circumstellar and interstellar gas. This begins the Sedov-Taylor phase, which can be well modeled by a self-similar analytic solution (see blast wave). Strong X-ray emission traces the strong shock waves and hot shocked gas.
Cooling of the shell, to form a thin (< 1 pc), dense (1-100 million atoms per cubic metre) shell surrounding the hot (few million kelvin) interior. This is the pressure-driven snowplow phase. The shell can be clearly seen in optical emission from recombining ionized hydrogen and ionized oxygen atoms.
Cooling of the interior. The dense shell continues to expand from its own momentum. This stage is best seen in the radio emission from neutral hydrogen atoms.
Merging with the surrounding interstellar medium. When the supernova remnant slows to the speed of the random velocities in the surrounding medium, after roughly 30,000 years, it will merge into the general turbulent flow, contributing its remaining kinetic energy to the turbulence.
Supernova remnant ejecta producing planet-forming material
Types of supernova remnant
There are three types of supernova remnant:
Shell-like, such as Cassiopeia A
Composite, in which a shell contains a central pulsar wind nebula, such as G11.2-0.3 or G21.5-0.9.
Mixed-morphology (also called "thermal composite") remnants, in which central thermal X-ray emission is seen, enclosed by a radio shell. The thermal X-rays are primarily from swept-up interstellar material, rather than supernova ejecta. Examples of this class include the SNRs W28 and W44. (Confusingly, W44 additionally contains a pulsar and pulsar wind nebula; so it is simultaneously both a "classic" composite and a thermal composite.)
Supernova remnants
HBH 3 (Spitzer space telescope; August 2, 2018)
G54.1+0.3 (November 16, 2018)
Remnants which could only be created by significantly higher ejection energies than a standard supernova are called hypernova remnants, after the high-energy hypernova explosion that is assumed to have created them.[3]
Origin of cosmic rays
Supernova remnants are considered the major source of galactic cosmic rays.[4][5][6] The connection between cosmic rays and supernovas was first suggested by Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky in 1934. Vitaly Ginzburg and Sergei Syrovatskii in 1964 remarked that if the efficiency of cosmic ray acceleration in supernova remnants is about 10 percent, the cosmic ray losses of the Milky Way are compensated. This hypothesis is supported by a specific mechanism called "shock wave acceleration" based on Enrico Fermi's ideas, which is still under development.
Indeed, Enrico Fermi proposed in 1949 a model for the acceleration of cosmic rays through particle collisions with magnetic clouds in the interstellar medium.[7] This process, known as the "Second Order Fermi Mechanism", increases particle energy during head-on collisions, resulting in a steady gain in energy. A later model to produce Fermi Acceleration was generated by a powerful shock front moving through space. Particles that repeatedly cross the front of the shock can gain significant increases in energy. This became known as the "First Order Fermi Mechanism".[8]
Supernova remnants can provide the energetic shock fronts required to generate ultra-high energy cosmic rays. Observation of the SN 1006 remnant in the X-ray has shown synchrotron emission consistent with it being a source of cosmic rays.[4] However, for energies higher than about 1018 eV a different mechanism is required as supernova remnants cannot provide sufficient energy.[8]
It is still unclear whether supernova remnants accelerate cosmic rays up to PeV energies. The future telescope CTA will help to answer this question.
See also
List of supernova remnants
Local Bubble
Nova remnant
Planetary nebula
Superbubble
References
Discovery of most recent supernova in our galaxy May 14, 2008
Reynolds, Stephen P. (2008). "Supernova Remnants at High Energy". Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics. 46 (46): 89–126. Bibcode:2008ARA&A..46...89R. doi:10.1146/annurev.astro.46.060407.145237.
Lai, Shih‐Ping; Chu, You‐Hua; Chen, C.‐H. Rosie; Ciardullo, Robin; Grebel, Eva K. (2001). "A Critical Examination of Hypernova Remnant Candidates in M101. I. MF 83". The Astrophysical Journal. 547 (2): 754–764. arXiv:astro-ph/0009238. Bibcode:2001ApJ...547..754L. doi:10.1086/318420. S2CID 14620463.
K. Koyama; R. Petre; E.V. Gotthelf; U. Hwang; et al. (1995). "Evidence for shock acceleration of high-energy electrons in the supernova remnant SN1006". Nature. 378 (6554): 255–258. Bibcode:1995Natur.378..255K. doi:10.1038/378255a0. S2CID 4257238.
"Supernova produces cosmic rays". BBC News. November 4, 2004. Retrieved 2006-11-28.
"SNR and Cosmic Ray Acceleration". NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Archived from the original on 1999-02-21. Retrieved 2007-02-08.
E. Fermi (1949). "On the Origin of the Cosmic Radiation". Physical Review. 75 (8): 1169–1174. Bibcode:1949PhRv...75.1169F. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.75.1169.
"Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays". University of Utah. Retrieved 2006-08-10.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Supernova remnants.
List of All Known Galactic and Extragalactic Supernovae on the Open Supernova Catalog (these are not supernova remnants yet)
Galactic SNR Catalogue (D. A. Green, University of Cambridge)
Chandra observations of supernova remnants: catalog, photo album, selected picks
2MASS images of Supernova Remnants
NASA: Introduction to Supernova Remnants
NASA's Imagine: Supernova Remnants
Afterlife of a Supernova on UniverseToday.com
Supernova remnant on arxiv.org
Supernova Remnants, SEDS
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Supernovae
Classes
Type Ia Type Ib and Ic Type II (IIP, IIL, IIn, and IIb) Hypernova Superluminous Pair-instability
Supernova&galaxia.png
G299-Remnants-SuperNova-Type1a-20150218.jpg
Physics of
Calcium-rich Carbon detonation Foe Near-Earth Phillips relationship Nucleosynthesis
P-process R-process Neutrinos
Related
Imposter
pulsational pair-instability Failed Gamma-ray burst Kilonova Luminous red nova Nova Pulsar kick Quark-nova Symbiotic nova
Progenitors
Hypergiant
yellow Luminous blue variable Supergiant
blue red yellow White dwarf
related links Wolf–Rayet star
Remnants
Supernova remnant
Pulsar wind nebula Neutron star
pulsar magnetar related links Stellar black hole
related links Compact star
quark star exotic star Zombie star Local Bubble Superbubble
Orion–Eridanus
Discovery
Guest star History of supernova observation Timeline of white dwarfs, neutron stars, and supernovae
Lists
Candidates Notable Massive stars Most distant Remnants In fiction
Notable
Barnard's Loop Cassiopeia A Crab
Crab Nebula iPTF14hls Tycho's Kepler's SN 1987A SN 185 SN 1006 SN 2003fg Remnant G1.9+0.3 SN 2007bi SN 2011fe SN 2014J SN Refsdal Vela Remnant
Research
ASAS-SN Calán/Tololo Survey High-Z Supernova Search Team Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope Monte Agliale Supernovae and Asteroid Survey Nearby Supernova Factory Sloan Supernova Survey Supernova/Acceleration Probe Supernova Cosmology Project SuperNova Early Warning System Supernova Legacy Survey Texas Supernova Search
Wikipedia book Book:Supernovae Category Category:Supernovae Commons page Commons:Supernovae
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Nebula
Visible nebula
Dark nebula Diffuse nebula
Emission nebula
Planetary nebula Supernova remnant Nova remnant H II region Reflection nebula
Variable nebula Preplanetary nebula
Pre-stellar nebula
Giant molecular cloud Bok globule Evaporating gaseous globule Solar nebula
Stellar nebula
Nova remnant Protoplanetary nebula Wolf–Rayet nebula
Post-stellar nebula
Planetary nebula Supernova remnant Pulsar wind nebula Supershell
Clouds
Interstellar cloud
Molecular cloud Infrared cirrus High-velocity cloud H I region
Morphology
Bipolar nebula Pinwheel nebula
List-Class article Lists
Diffuse Planetary (PNe) Protoplanetary (PPNe) Supernova remnants (SNRs)
Hellenica World - Scientific Library
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