Dust production in supernovae: the case of Kepler’s SNR

REYNOSO, ESTELA M.; GOMEZ, HALEY; DUNE, LORETTA; IVISON, ROB; SIBTHORPE, BRUCE; MADDOX, STEVE; EALES, STEVE; ISAAK, KATE

Río de Janeiro, Brasil

Congreso; Joint Discussion 14_Asamblea General de la Unión Astronómica Internacional; 2009

The role of supernovae as sources of dust is still unresolved. Theoretical models predict that each type-II SN can produce 0.3 to 5 Msun of dust. However, optical and mid-IR observations provide evidence for only 0.001 to 0.05 Msun, while sub-millimetre observations suggest 0.1 to 1 Msun. In this work, we analyze the sub-mm emission from cold dust in Kepler’s supernova remnant and compare it with the three dimensional distribution of the atomic and molecular gas with the aim of disentangling the dust component associated with the remnant and that arising in foreground or background clouds. We find that the dust emission has a clear ring-like structure not observed in the HI or CO emission. There is some correlation between sub-mm dust peaks and faint, narrow molecular concentrations. However, 40 per cent of sub-mm emission towards Kepler’s SNR does not appear to be related to the molecular gas and appears to trace ejecta or swept up circumstellar material. Taking into account the foreground emission, we compute about 0.2 to 0.6 Msun of dust based on the remaining sub-mm emission. These values lie in the lower end of the theoretically predicted range.