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P. F. Winkler, C.N. Reith (Middlebury Coll.), K.S. Long (STScI)
New optical images of the young supernova remnant (SNR) G292.0+1.8, obtained from the 0.9-m telescope at CTIO, show a far more extensive network of filaments than previous data indicate. Images in [O~III] show filaments distributed throughout much of the 8 arcmin diameter shell seen in X-ray and radio images. Many of the outer filaments have a radial, pencil-like morphology that is very suggestive of Rayleigh-Tayor fingers. Comparison of images from epochs 1986-2002 shows filamentary proper motions roughly in the direction of these fingers, consistent with expansion from a point near the central pulsar with a kinematic age of about 3000 yr. Simulations of core-collapse supernovae predict the development of such fingers, but they have never before been so clearly observed in a young SNR.
In addition to the extensive [O~III] filaments, we have detected three small complexes of filaments that show [S~II] emission along with the oxygen lines. None of the fast filaments, with or without [S~II], show any evidence for hydrogen; all must be composed of pure supernova ejecta. Limited spectra indicate differences of more than a factor of 5 in the relative strengths of S and O lines, which cannot be attributed to differences in excitation. The progenitor to G292.0+1.8 must have undergone at least some oxygen burning, the products of which have been mixed in variable amounts into at least a few filaments of ejecta.
This research has been funded primarily by the National Science Foundation through grant AST-0307613.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #2
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.