Far-Infrared Luminous Supernova Remnant Kes 17

TL;DR

This study presents infrared observations of supernova remnant Kes 17, revealing its significant far-IR emission, dust components, and interactions with molecular gas, advancing understanding of SNRs' dust and gas dynamics.

Contribution

First detailed IR analysis of Kes 17 showing dual dust components and SNR-molecular gas interactions, highlighting its unique far-IR luminosity among SNRs.

Findings

Detection of bright mid- and far-IR emission in Kes 17's shells.

Identification of hot and cold dust components with specific temperatures and masses.

Evidence of shocked dense molecular gas interacting with the SNR.

Abstract

We present the results of infrared (IR; 2.5--160 um) observations of the supernova remnant (SNR) Kes 17 based on the data obtained with the AKARI and Spitzer satellites. We first detect bright continuum emission of its western shell in the mid- and far-IR wavebands together with its near-IR molecular line emission. We also detect hidden mid-IR emission of its southern shell after subtraction of the background emission in this region. The far-IR luminosity of the western shell is ~ 8100 L_sun, which makes Kes 17 one of the few SNRs of significant far-IR emission. The fittings of the spectral energy distribution indicate the existence of two dust components: ~ 79 K (hot) and ~ 27 K (cold) corresponding to the dust mass of ~ 6.2x10^{-4} M_sun and ~ 6.7 M_sun, respectively. We suggest that the hot component represents the dust emission of the material swept up by the SNR to its western and southern boundaries, compatible with the distribution of radio continuum emission overlapping the mid-IR emission in the western and southern shells. The existence of hot (~ 2,000 K), shocked dense molecular gas revealed by the near-IR molecular line emission in the western shell, on the other hand, suggests that the cold dust component represents the dust emission related to the interaction between the SNR and nearby molecular gas. The excitation conditions of the molecular gas appear to be consistent with those from shocked, clumpy admixture gas of different temperatures. We discuss three possibilities for the origin of the bright far-IR emission of the cold dust in the western shell: the emission of dust in the inter-clump medium of shocked molecular clouds, the emission of dust in evaporating flows of molecular clouds engulfed by hot gas, and the emission of dust of nearby molecular clouds illuminated by radiative shocks.