Shock and awe: measuring the expansion of the shock front of supernova remnant SN 1006

DILLS, S.; MCKINNEY, L.; MOFFETT, D. A.; REYNOSO, E.

Washington, DC

Congreso; 223º Reunión de la American Astronomical Society; 2014

We have determined the expansion of the supernova remnant (SNR) of SN1006 over a seven-year period, using data collected in 2003 and 2010. The data was calibrated and imaged using Miriad and CASA programming before we stacked the two images to accurately assess the expansion rate. Our data was collected from the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico and Australian Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). The 2003 epoch observations were conducted at the ATCA and the VLA. The 2010 epoch observations were conducted only at the ATCA. We processed the data using the Miriad and CASA software packages, which allowed us to perform calibration and imaging of radio interferometer visibility data. We deconvolved the raw images using CLEAN and MAXEN (maximum entropy deconvolution) to remove spurious side lobes, resulting in epoch images with a synthesized beamwidth of 6.0 arcseconds per beam. We used the 2010 image as a template to align the 2003 image and to match resolution. A difference image formed from the two epoch images reveals an obvious expansion of the SNR. We measured the expansion rate at nine points along the shell of the remnant. We found that the expansion rate varied across the remnant?s shell. The greatest amount of expansion measured was 5.71 arcseconds over seven years, which for a distance of 2.2 kpc, has the remnant moving at 8,500 km/s. The average expansion measured across the shell was 4.25 arcseconds over seven years.