X-ray Observations of Galactic and Extragalactic Supernova Remnants

Speaker:  Thomas Pannuti   (Morehead State University)

Abstract:



Supernova remnants (SNRs) are intimately involved in numerous processes associated

with the evolution of the interstellar medium (ISM). For example, SNRs are known to

deposit vast amounts of kinetic energy and chemically-enriched material into the ISM:

in addition, these sources have emerged as the leading candidates for the accelerators of cosmic-ray

particles up to approximately the well-known "knee" energy of the cosmic-ray spectrum.

SNRs have been observed and studied over a remarkably broad range of the electromagnetic

spectrum, including the X-ray. Thanks to dramatic improvements in the angular resolution

capabilities of the present generation of X-ray observatories (including Chandra and XMM-Newton) --

as well as the flux sensitivities attained routinely by these observatories -- exciting new insights on

SNRs and their related phenomena have been realized in recent years. I will present a brief overview

of SNRs and X-ray observations of these sources (including both Galactic and extragalactic SNRs):

I will concentrate on recent studies of SNRs with unusual X-ray properties, namely SNRs with

X-ray spectra dominated by non-thermal emission (believed to be synchrotron radiation) as well as

mixed-morphology SNRs (that is, SNRs with center-filled thermal X-ray morphologies and contrasting

shell-like radio morphologies).