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Session 74 - Supernova Remnants.
Display session, Thursday, June 13
Great Hall,
We present Hubble Space Telescope emission-line images obtained with WFPC2 of the oxygen-rich supernova remnants N132D in the Large Magellanic Cloud and E0102.2--7219 in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The high spatial resolution of the WFPC2 images allows to study structure within these important objects at scales comparable to ground-based images of nearby SNRs. Supernova ejecta are easily distinguished from shocked or photoionized circumstellar material by their chemical composition and morphology. We discuss the fine-scale structure of the supernova ejecta in each remnant, and compare the results with observations of nearby O-rich SNRs, such as Cas A. For the first time we discern ionization structure within shocked circumstellar clouds in N132D, reminiscent of filaments in galactic SNRs that are thought to arise from recent shock/IS cloud encounters where the full cooling and recombination zone has not yet formed throughout the structure. We also discuss the global structure of the SNRs by comparing our high-resolution images with ROSAT HRI soft X-ray maps. Each remnant exhibits an X-ray shell that envelopes the oxygen-rich SN debris as well as a diffuse rim of photoionized interstellar gas that lies outside the soft X-ray shell.
