A New Evolutionary Phase of Supernova Remnant 1987A
Sangwook Park (UT Arlinton), Svetozar A. Zhekov (STRI), David N., Burrows (Penn State), Judith L. Racusin (GSFC), Daniel Dewey (MIT) and, Richard McCray (Colorado)

TL;DR
Since 1999, Chandra observations of supernova remnant 1987A reveal a significant flattening in the soft X-ray light curve, indicating the shock is interacting with a decreasing density structure, which impacts understanding of the remnant's evolution.
Contribution
This study provides the first detailed long-term X-ray light curve analysis showing a transition in the shock interaction phase of SNR 1987A.
Findings
Soft X-ray flux has flattened over the last 1.5 years.
The forward shock is likely moving beyond a density peak of the inner ring.
The flux stabilization suggests a change in the shock's environment.
Abstract
We have been monitoring the supernova remnant (SNR) 1987A with {\it Chandra} observations since 1999. Here we report on the latest change in the soft X-ray light curve of SNR 1987A. For the last 1.5 yr (since day 8000), the soft X-ray flux has significantly flattened, staying (within uncertainties) at 5.7 10 erg cm s (corresponding to 3.6 10 erg s) in the 0.5--2 keV band. This remarkable change in the recent soft X-ray light curve suggests that the forward shock is now interacting with a decreasing density structure, after interacting with an increasing density gradient over 10 yr prior to day 8000. Possibilities may include the case that the shock is now propagating beyond a density peak of the inner ring. We briefly discuss some possible implications on the nature of the…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsAstrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena · Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae · Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
