New Hubble Space Telescope observations of high-velocity Ly and H in SNR 1987A Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • We describe and model high-velocity (15,000 km s-1) Ly and H emission from the supernova remnant SNR 1987A seen in 1997 September and October with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. Part of this emission comes from a reverse shock located at 75% of the radius of the inner boundary of the inner circumstellar ring and confined within 30 of the equatorial plane. Departure from axisymmetry in the Ly and H emission correlates with that seen in nonthermal radio emission and reveals an asymmetry in the circumstellar gas distribution. We also see diffuse high-velocity Ly emission from supernova debris inside the reverse shock that may be due to excitation by nonthermal particles accelerated by the shock.

published proceedings

  • Astrophysical Journal

author list (cited authors)

  • Michael, E., McCray, R., Pun, C., Borkowski, K., Garnavich, P., Challis, P., ... Wheeler, J. C.

complete list of authors

  • Michael, E||McCray, R||Pun, CSJ||Borkowski, K||Garnavich, P||Challis, P||Kirshner, RP||Chevalier, R||Filippenko, AV||Fransson, C||Panagia, N||Phillips, M||Schmidt, B||Suntzeff, N||Wheeler, JC

publication date

  • December 1998