Open AccessIron needles in supernova remnants?
Author(s) -
Gomez née Morgan Haley L.,
Dunne Loretta,
Eales Stephen A.,
Gomez Edward L.,
Edmunds Michael G.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.09241.x
Subject(s) - physics , supernova , astrophysics , kepler , supernova remnant , mass ratio , electron , astronomy , stars , nuclear physics
It has been suggested by Dwek that iron needles could explain the submillimetre emission from the Cas A supernova remnant (SNR) with only a very small total mass. We investigate whether a similar model holds for the Kepler SNR, and find that its emission could indeed be explained by a dust mass of less than 10 −2 M ⊙ , dependent on the axial ratio l / a of the needles – which we constrain to be less than 700. But the implied needle model for Kepler is inconsistent with that suggested for Cas A since either the needles would have to have a resistivity one or two orders of magnitude greater than those in Cas A or the electron density in Kepler's shocked plasma must be 40 times greater than suggested by X‐ray observations. An additional problem with the needle model is that the implied thickness of the needles seems to be implausibly small, if the emission properties are calculated under the usual approximations.