Measuring Dust Production in the Small Magellanic Cloud Core-Collapse Supernova Remnant 1E 0102.2-7219

TL;DR

This study uses mid-infrared spectral mapping to analyze dust formation in the supernova remnant 1E 0102.2-7219, revealing newly formed dust and comparing its properties with other remnants like Cas A.

Contribution

First detailed mid-IR spectral analysis of dust in the SMC supernova remnant 1E 0102.2-7219, identifying dust composition and estimating mass, with comparison to other remnants.

Findings

Detected dust associated with supernova ejecta.

Estimated dust mass of 3x10^-3 solar masses of amorphous carbon.

Found less dust in E 0102 than in Cas A.

Abstract

We present mid-infrared spectral mapping observations of the core-collapse supernova remnant 1E 0102.2-7219 in the Small Magellanic Cloud using the InfraRed Spectrograph (IRS) on the Spitzer Space Telescope. The remnant shows emission from fine structure transitions of neon and oxygen as well as continuum emission from dust. Comparison of the mid-IR dust emission with observations at x-ray, radio and optical wavelengths shows that the dust is associated with the supernova ejecta and is thus newly formed in the remnant. The spectrum of the newly formed dust is well reproduced by a model that includes 3x10^-3 solar masses of amorphous carbon dust at 70 K and 2x10^-5 solar masses of Mg2SiO4 (forsterite) at 145 K. Our observations place a lower limit on the amount of dust in the remnant since we are not sensitive to the cold dust in the unshocked ejecta. We compare our results to observations of other core-collapse supernovae and remnants, particularly Cas A where very similar spectral mapping observations have been carried out. We observe a a factor of ~10 less dust in E 0102 than seen in Cas A, although the amounts of amorphous carbon and forsterite are comparable.