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P. F. Winkler (Middlebury Coll.), K.S. Long (STScI), R.A. Fesen (Dartmouth Coll.), A.J.S. Hamilton (U. Colo.)
Ejecta within young supernova remnants (SNRs) have been widely studied both through the X-ray emission from highly ionized plasma heated by fast shocks and through the optical emission from isolated dense filaments excited by secondary shocks. A full inventory of the ejecta, however, must also include cold, unshocked material within the SNR shell, which can be studied through UV absorption spectroscopy if suitable background ``UV lightbulbs'' can be identified. So far, this technique has been applied only in the remnant of SN 1006, where IUE and HST spectra of the Schweizer-Middleditch (S-M) star have probed a single sight line 3 arcmin from the projected center of the 15 arcmin radius shell (Hamilton et al. 1997, ApJ 481, 838 and references therein).
We have identified at least two more background UV sources that enable us to probe additional core samples through the SN 1006 shell, corresponding to the sight lines to each of these sources, using spectra from HST-STIS. A QSO with V = 18.3 and z = 0.337, located 9 arcmin NE of the projected center, shows evidence of broad but asymmetric (primarily red-shifted) absorption in Si II and Si IV lines. There is only marginal evidence for absorption from Fe II at 2382 and 2599 Å\ with near zero velocity. Only a near-UV spectrum was obtained for a fainter (V = 19.5) QSO at z = 1.026, located within 2 arcmin of the SNR center. This shows strong evidence for broad Fe II absorption with a sharp blue edge at ~ -3000 km/s and a more gradual red edge extending to > 8000 km/s. These profiles appear similar to those for the S-M star. Two ~A0 stars are probably more distant than SN 1006 but are located far from the center, within 3 arcmin of the shell rim. Neither appears to show evidence for absorption along the line of sight. These multiple cores through the SNR shell enable us to better map the distribution of ejecta.
This research is based on observations with the Hubble Space Telescope and is directly supported through NASA Grant HST-GO-08244.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.