X-Ray Observations of Supernova Remnants as Distance Indicators

June 1994 • 1994ApJ...427L..95K

Authors • Kassim, Namir E. • Hertz, Paul • van Dyk, Schuyler D. • Weiler, Kurt W.

Abstract • We investigate whether ROSAT observations of thermal X-ray emission from shell-type supernova remnants (SNRs) can be used to constrain their distances. The most critical assumption is that the initial kinetic energy (epsilon₀) of a supernova (SN) explosion is a constant at epsilon₀ = 10⁵¹ ergs; however, the derived distance (D) is only weakly dependent on epsilon₀ (D varies as ((epsilon₀))^0.4)). We evaluate this technique by applying it to SNRs with independently determined distances, and our initial results indicate good agreement. We conclude that the ROSAT all-sky survey may be used to establish, for the first time, a set of good distance estimates to a large number of extended, shell-type SNRs. The energy range of ROSAT is well suited for this purpose, since most shell-type SNRs have thermal X-ray spectra which peak within the ROSAT PSPC (position-sensitive proportional counter) energy range of 0.1-2.4 keV.

Links

• SIMBAD http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbo.pl?bibcode=1994ApJ...427L..95K
• GIF http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1994ApJ...427L..95K
• ARTICLE http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1994ApJ...427L..95K?defaultprint=YES