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R. Williams (University of Massachusetts)
Increases in resolution and sensitivity for current optical, radio, and X-ray instrumentation have had the practical effect of bringing the Magellanic Cloud samples of supernova remnants (SNRs) into ever better focus. We can now study these SNRs at levels of detail previously only available for Galactic remnants. While they have the advantages of extragalactic datasets (samples at known and roughly equal distances, low obscuration), they remain close enough for detailed examination. This makes the sample an ideal ``stepping-stone" for the study of remnants in more distant galaxies; findings for Magellanic Cloud SNRs can be meaningfully compared and extrapolated to those SNRs for which we do not posess such high resolutions.
Furthermore, the Magellanic Cloud remnants posess features of compelling interest in themselves. A sub-population of the faintest SNRs - invisible in the Galaxy and most extragalactic samples due to obscuration, confusion, and/or lack of sensitivity - are actually discernable in the Clouds. This important group holds the most potential to reveal details of late-stage SNR evolution and the long-term fate of the hot gas produced within them. In additon, the Magellanic Cloud remnants have characteristics unique to each sample, such as the Small Magellanic Cloud SNRs thought to be associated with starburst activity (including three with Be stars) and the Large Magellanic Cloud SNRs thought to be interacting with (or within) neighboring superbubbles and supershells.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: rosanina@hnr.astro.umass.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.