A new Chandra observation of SNR 0506−68.0 (also called N23) reveals a complex, highly structured morphology in the low energy X-ray band and an isolated compact central object in the high energy band. Spectral analysis indicates that the X-ray emission overall is dominated by thermal gas whose composition is consistent with swept-up ambient material. There is a strong gradient in ambient density across the diameter of the remnant. Toward the southeast, near a prominent star cluster, the emitting density is 20–45 cm^-3 , while toward the northwest it has dropped to a value of only 1 cm^−3. The total extent of the X-ray remnant is 100" x 120" (24 pc x 29 pc for a distance of 50 kpc), about double that previously known. The remnant’s age is estimated to be ~4600 yr. One part of the remnant shows evidence for enhanced O, Ne, and perhaps Mg abundances, which is interpreted as evidence for ejecta from a massive star core collapse supernova. The compact central object has a luminosity of a few times 10^33 ergs s^−1 and no obvious radio or optical counterpart. It does not show an extended nebula or pulsed emission as expected from a young energetic pulsar, but resembles the compact central objects seen in other core collapse SNe, such as Cas A.

Summer research project in 2004 at Rutgers University

with Prof. Jack Hughes

The Chandra View of the Supernova Remnant 0506−68.0 in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Prof. Hughes Website
{"extraction_info": {"found_math": false, "script_math_tex": 0, "script_math_asciimath": 0, "math_annotations": 0, "math_alttext": 0, "mathml": 0, "mathjax_tag": 0, "mathjax_inline_tex": 0, "mathjax_display_tex": 0, "mathjax_asciimath": 0, "img_math": 0, "codecogs_latex": 0, "wp_latex": 0, "mimetex.cgi": 0, "/images/math/codecogs": 0, "mathtex.cgi": 0, "katex": 0, "math-container": 0, "wp-katex-eq": 0, "align": 0, "equation": 0, "x-ck12": 0, "texerror": 0, "math_score": 0.9017782807350159, "perplexity": 2611.0270485119136}, "config": {"markdown_headings": true, "markdown_code": false, "boilerplate_config": {"ratio_threshold": 0.18, "absolute_threshold": 10, "end_threshold": 15, "enable": true}, "remove_buttons": true, "remove_image_figures": true, "remove_link_clusters": true, "table_config": {"min_rows": 2, "min_cols": 3, "format": "plain"}, "remove_chinese": true, "remove_edit_buttons": true, "extract_latex": true}, "warc_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189686.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00510-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz"}