The Post-impact Evolution of the X-ray Emitting Gas in SNR 1987A Viewed by XMM-Newton

Abstract

Since 1996 the blast wave driven by SN 1987A has been interacting with the dense circumstellar material, which provides us with a unique opportunity to study the early evolution of a newborn supernova remnant (SNR). Based on the XMM-Newton RGS and EPIC-pn X-ray observations from 2007 to 2019, we investigated the post-impact evolution of the X-ray emitting gas in SNR 1987A. The hot plasma is represented by two non-equilibrium ionization components with temperature of $\sim 0.6$ keV and $\sim 2.5$ keV. The low-temperature plasma has a density $\sim 2400$ cm${}^{-3}$, which is likely dominated by the lower density gas inside the equatorial ring (ER). The high-temperature plasma with a density $\sim 550$ cm${}^{-3}$ could be dominated by the H II region and the high-latitude material beyond the ring. In the last few years, the emission measure of the low-temperature plasma has been decreasing, indicating that the blast wave has left the main ER. But the blast wave is still propagating into the high-latitude gas, resulting in the steadily increase of the high-temperature emission measure. In the meantime, the average abundances of N, O, Ne, and Mg are found to be declining, which may reflect the different chemical compositions between two plasma components. We also detected the Fe K lines in most of the observations, showing increasing flux and centroid energy. We interpret the Fe K lines as from a third hot component, which may come from the reflected shock-heated gas or originate from Fe-rich ejecta clumps, shocked by the reverse shock.

33 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (13)

• A Physical Relationship Between Electron-Proton Temperature Equilibration and Mach Number in Fast Collisionless Shocks
• The Triple-Ring Nebula around SN1987A: Fingerprint of a binary merger
• Multiple ring nebulae around blue supergiants
• Chandra Observes the End of an Era SN 1987A
• The Destruction of the Circumstellar Ring of SN 1987A
• Collisionless shock heating of heavy ions in SN 1987A
• Time evolution of the line emission from the inner circumstellar ring of SN 1987A and its hot spots
• Evolutionary Status of SNR 1987A at the Age of Eighteen
• Chandra LETG Observations of Supernova Remnant 1987A
• Indication of a Pulsar Wind Nebula in the hard X-ray emission from SN 1987A
• The matter beyond the ring: the recent evolution of SN 1987A observed by the Hubble Space Telescope
• Systematic Study of Acceleration Efficiency in Young Supernova Remnants with Nonthermal X-ray Observations
• High-cadence Dispersed Spectral Analysis of Supernova Remnant 1987A

Cited by in corpus (11)

• JWST NIRSpec observations of Supernova 1987A -- from the inner ejecta to the reverse shock
• Additional evidence for a pulsar wind nebula in the heart of SN 1987A from multi-epoch X-ray data and MHD modeling
• SN 1987A : Tracing the flux decline and spectral evolution through a comparison of SRG/eROSITA and XMM-Newton observations
• Scientific Objectives of the Hot Universe Baryon Surveyor (HUBS) Mission
• Latest Evolution of the X-Ray Remnant of SN 1987A: Beyond the Inner Ring
• The morphology of the ejecta of SN 1987A at 31 years from 1150 to 10000 Å
• Tracing the ejecta structure of SN 1987A: Insights and diagnostics from 3D MHD simulations
• Discovery of Year-Scale Time Variability from Thermal X-ray Emission in Tycho's Supernova Remnant
• Polarized radio emission unveils the structure of the pre-supernova circumstellar magnetic field and the radio emission in SN1987A
• Unusual X-ray Oxygen Line Ratios of SN 1987A Arising From the Absorption of Galactic Hot Interstellar Medium
• Measuring the initial mass of 44Ti in SN 1987A through the 44Sc emission line