Morphology and Physics of Supernova Remnants

Abstract

AbstractSpectrally resolved X-ray images of the Cygnus Loop and the Vela supernova remnant have been obtained during the ROSAT all sky survey. The remnants show highly filamentary brightness distributions. Temperatures between 1·106 K and 10·106 K have been measured. Both remnants show significant deviation from thermal pressure equilibrium. The highest pressure excursions of up to a factor of 50 are associated with the X-ray brightest filaments. Pressure variations are expected for very recently shocked clouds, on a smaller scale though. In a limited search of the all sky survey data 14 extended objects have been found, which have tentatively been identified as previously unknown supernova remnants. A total number of ~ 60 new remnants are expected from the analysis of the full sky.