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Session 78 - Supernova Remnants.
Display session, Wednesday, January 17
North Banquet Hall, Convention Center
We use observations of the J = 2 \rightarrow 1 rotational transition of CO from the Swedish-ESO Submillimeter Telescope and X-ray images from the ROSAT and Einstein satellites to show an association between two supernova remnants (SNRs) and nearby molecular clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud. We show that supernova remnants N49 and N132D each exhibit close positional coincidences with molecular clouds. No J = 2 \rightarrow 1 emission was found near the third SNR, N23, that we studied. Masses, line widths, and velocities were calculated for the two detected clouds. The velocities derived for the clouds near N49 and N132D, +285.95 and +263.96 km s^-1, agree well with the remnant velocities of +286 km s^-1 (Shull 1983) and +268 km s^-1 (Morse et al. 1995), respectively. This agreement in velocity implies a line-of-sight positional relationship as well. The X-ray morphologies of the remnants show increased emission coincident with the region of dense molecular material, further supporting the conclusion that the clouds and SNRs are physically associated. The association of these supernova remnants with dense regions of molecular material suggests that both were likely products of massive core-collapse supernovae.
