Identification of the central compact object in the young supernova remnant 1E 0102.2–7219. (June 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vogt, Frédéric; Bartlett, Elizabeth; Seitenzahl, Ivo; Dopita, Michael; Ghavamian, Parviz; Ruiter, Ashley; Terry, Jason
• Is Part Of: Nature astronomy. Volume 2:Number 6(2018)
• Page Start: 465
• Page End: 471
• Publication Date: 2018-06
• Subjects: Astronomy -- Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1038/s41550-018-0433-0
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2397-3366

Abstract

Abstract Oxygen-rich young supernova remnants1 are valuable objects for probing the outcome of nucleosynthetic processes in massive stars, as well as the physics of supernova explosions. Observed within a few thousand years after the supernova explosion2, these systems contain fast-moving oxygen-rich and hydrogen-poor filaments visible at optical wavelengths: fragments of the progenitor's interior expelled at a few thousand kilometres per second during the supernova explosion. Here we report the identification of the compact object in the supernova remnant 1E 0102.2–7219 in reprocessed Chandra X-ray Observatory data, enabled by the discovery of a ring-shaped structure visible primarily in optical recombination lines of Nei and Oi . The optical ring has a radius of (2.10 ± 0.35)″ ≡ (0.63 ± 0.11) pc, and is expanding at a velocity of $$90.{5}_{-30}^{+40}$$ 90 . 5 - 30 + 40 km s−1 . It surrounds an X-ray point source with an intrinsic X-ray luminosityL i (1.2–2.0 keV) = (1.4 ± 0.2) × 1033 erg s−1 . The energy distribution of the source indicates that this object is an isolated neutron star: a central compact object akin to those present in the Cas A3–5 and Pup A6 supernova remnants, and the first of its kind to be identified outside of our Galaxy. Aided by an optical ring-shaped structure visible in the recombination lines of neon and oxygen, a neutron star (the central compact object) has been identified in X-ray data of the supernova remnant 1E 0102.2–7219.