Concepedia

Publication | Closed Access

Elemental abundances in a Type I supernova remnant

DOI

57

Citations

0

References

1980

Year

R. H. Becker, B. W. Smith, N. E. White, R. F. Mushotzky, S. S. Holt, E. A. Boldt, P. J. Serlemitsos
The Astrophysical Journal

Abstract

The solid-state spectrometer (SSS) on the HEAO 2 (Einstein) X-ray observatory observed the X-ray spectrum of Tycho's SNR. The observations show a relative excess of line emission from Si, S, and Ar by not less than 6 compared to that expected from a plasma of solar composition in collisional equilibrium and by a factor of not less than 3 compared to Cas A. Similar excesses are not found for line emission from Mg and Fe. The data suggest that the SN observed by Tycho in 1572 produced significant amounts of Si group elements but did not eject large amounts of Fe as predicted by some models of Type I SN events.