De Looze, I;
Barlow, MJ;
Swinyard, BM;
Rho, J;
Gomez, HL;
Matsuura, M;
Wesson, R;
(2017)
The dust mass in Cassiopeia A from a spatially resolved Herschel analysis.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
, 465
(3)
pp. 3309-3342.
10.1093/mnras/stw2837.
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Abstract
Theoretical models predict that core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) can be efficient dust producers (0.1-1.0 M⊙), potentially accounting for most of the dust production in the early Universe. Observational evidence for this dust production efficiency is however currently limited to only a few CCSN remnants (e.g. SN 1987A, Crab nebula). In this paper, we revisit the dust mass produced in Cassiopeia A (Cas A), a ~330-yr old O-rich Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) embedded in a dense interstellar foreground and background. We present the first spatially resolved analysis of Cas A based on Spitzer and Herschel infrared and submillimetre data at a common resolution of ~0.6 arcmin for this 5 arcmin diameter remnant following a careful removal of contaminating line emission and synchrotron radiation. We fit the dust continuum from 17 to 500 μm with a four-component interstellar medium and supernova (SN) dust model.We find a concentration of cold dust in the unshocked ejecta of Cas A and derive a mass of 0.3-0.5M⊙ of silicate grains freshly produced in the SNR, with a lower limit of ≥0.1- 0.2 M⊙. For a mixture of 50 per cent of silicate-type grains and 50 per cent of carbonaceous grains, we derive a total SN dust mass between 0.4 and 0.6M⊙. These dust mass estimates are higher than from most previous studies of Cas A and support the scenario of SN-dominated dust production at high redshifts. We furthermore derive an interstellar extinction map for the field around Cas A which towards Cas A gives average values of AV = 6-8 mag, up to a maximum of AV = 15 mag.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The dust mass in Cassiopeia A from a spatially resolved Herschel analysis |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/mnras/stw2837 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw2837 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2016 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. |
| Keywords: | Supernovae: individual: Cassiopeia A, dust, extinction, ISM: supernova remnants, infrared: ISM |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1528995 |
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