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Session 40 - Supernova Remnants & SN 1987A.
Display session, Thursday, January 08
Exhibit Hall,

[40.03] Multiwavelength Study of SNRs in the LMC

M. Tavarez, R. C. Smith (U of Michigan), R. Petre (GSFC)

We present a multiwavelength study of eight supernova remnants (SNRs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud: N103B, N120, N132D, N157B, N206, N49, N49B and N63A. These SNRs were selected based on their location within or in close proximity to H II regions and OB associations. While several previous multi-wavelength studies of SNRs have been carried out at optical, X-ray and radio wavelengths, we conduct a similar study using optical, X-ray and near-infrared (NIR) data.

The optical data were obtained with the CTIO 1.5 meter and Curtis Schmidt telescopes as part of a survey of Magellanic Cloud SNRs. This dataset is comprised of images in [O III], [S II] and H\alpha emission, as well as corresponding continuum bands to allow subtraction of stellar sources. The near-IR data were obtained with the CTIO 1.5 meter telescope as an extension of the afore-mentioned optical survey. The NIR data consist of images in [Fe II] (1.644 \mum), Br\gamma (2.2 \mum) and H_2 (2.12 \mum) along with the corresponding continuum band images to subtract stellar sources. Finally, the X-ray data are ROSAT HRI images obtained from the ROSAT archive and include anywhere from 1 to 4 observations of the SNRs.

Our preliminary results show that the near-IR morphology follows the optical morphology, although the brightness of the corresponding filaments is not one to one. One notable exception to this general trend is SNR N49B, which shows strong optical emission but no detected near-IR emission. In addition, we have found that two SNRs, N120 and N206, may be characterized as ``centrally-filled'' remnants, in which the brightest X-ray emission originates from the center of the remnant. This research was funded in part by the GEM Fellowship.


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