The ROSAT-HRI X-Ray Survey of the Cygnus Loop

Abstract

We describe and report progress on the joint U.S. and German campaign to map the X-ray emission from the entire Cygnus Loop supernova remnant with the ROSAT High Resolution Imager. The Cygnus Loop is the prototype for a supernova remnant that is dominated by interactions with the interstellar medium and supplies fundamental physical information on this basic mechanism for shaping the interstellar medium. The global view that these high-resolution observations provide emphasizes the inhomogeneity of the interstellar medium and the pivotal nature of cloud-blast wave interactions in determining the X-ray morphology of the supernova remnant. While investigating the details of the evolution of the blast wave, we also describe the interstellar medium in the vicinity of the Cygnus Loop, which the progenitor star has processed. Although we do not expect the X-ray observations to be complete until September 1997, the incomplete data combined with deep H$\alpha$ images provide definitive evidence that the Cygnus Loop was formed by an explosion within a preexisting cavity.

15 text pages, 17 figures, AASTeX, to appear in July 10 ApJ

Cited by in corpus (40)

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• The Evolution of Supernovae in Circumstellar Wind Bubbles II: Case of a Wolf-Rayet star
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• The Distance to the Cygnus Loop from Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of the Primary Shock Front
• New lambda6cm observations of the Cygnus Loop
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• Shell Shock and Cloud Shock: Results from Spatially-Resolved X-ray Spectroscopy with Chandra in the Cygnus Loop
• The Plasma Structure of the Cygnus Loop from the Northeastern Rim to the Southwestern Rim
• A Detailed Analysis of a Cygnus Loop Shock-Cloud Interaction
• Is the Cygnus Loop two supernova remnants?
• ROSAT HRI and ASCA Observations of the Spiral Galaxy NGC 6946 and Its Northeast Complex of Luminous SNRs
• The origin of the late-time luminosity of supernova 2011dh
• High Forbidden-to-resonance Line Ratio of OVII Discovered in the Cygnus Loop
• SPEAR Far Ultraviolet Spectral Images of the Cygnus Loop
• A Comparison of Ultraviolet, Optical, and X-Ray Imagery of Selected Fields in the Cygnus Loop
• The Plasma Structure of the Southwestern Region of the Cygnus Loop with the XMM-Newton Observatory
• The Ejecta Distributions of the Heavy Elements in the Cygnus Loop
• High resolution CO observations towards the Bright Eastern Knot of the SNR Puppis A
• FUSE Observations of the Cygnus Loop: OVI Emission from a Nonradiative Shock
• Abundance Inhomogeneity in the Northeastern Rim of the Cygnus Loop Revealed by Suzaku Observatory
• Line-of-sight Shell Structure of the Cygnus Loop
• Chandra Imaging and Spectroscopy of the Eastern XA Region of the Cygnus Loop Supernova Remnant
• Asymmetric Ejecta Distribution of the Cygnus Loop revealed with Suzaku
• A Distance Estimate to the Cygnus Loop Based on the Distances to Two Stars Located Within the Remnant
• Evidence for Resonance Line Scattering in the Suzaku X-ray Spectrum of the Cygnus Loop
• Reflection Shocked Gas in the Cygnus Loop Supernova Remnant
• Soft X-ray Spectroscopy of the Cygnus Loop Supernova Remnant
• Environmental Impact on the Southeast Limb of the Cygnus Loop
• Global Far-Ultraviolet Properties of the Cygnus Loop
• The warm interstellar medium around the Cygnus Loop
• The Abundance Inhomogeneity in the Northern Rim of the Cygnus Loop
• The origin of the X-ray emitting plasma in the eastern edge of the Cygnus Loop
• Discovery of a Pulsar Wind Nebula Candidate in the Cygnus Loop
• Unbiased Spectroscopic Study of the Cygnus Loop with LAMOST. I. Optical Properties of Emission Lines and the Global Spectrum
• First Detection of Ar-K Line Emission from the Cygnus Loop