The dust mass in Cassiopeia A from a spatially resolved Herschel analysis

TL;DR

This study provides a spatially resolved analysis of Cassiopeia A, revealing a significant amount of freshly produced supernova dust (~0.4-0.6 solar masses), supporting supernovae as major dust sources in the early Universe.

Contribution

First spatially resolved Herschel analysis of Cas A quantifying supernova dust mass, showing higher dust content than previous estimates and supporting supernova-driven dust production models.

Findings

Derived 0.3-0.5 Msun of silicate dust in Cas A

Total supernova dust mass between 0.4 and 0.6 Msun

Supports supernovae as dominant dust producers at high redshift

Abstract

Theoretical models predict that core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) can be efficient dust producers (0.1-1.0 Msun), potentially accounting for most of the dust production in the early Universe. Observational evidence for this dust production efficiency is however currently limited to only a few CCSN remnants (e.g., SN1987A, Crab Nebula). In this paper, we revisit the dust mass produced in Cassiopeia A (Cas A), a ~330-year old O-rich Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) embedded in a dense interstellar foreground and background. We present the first spatially resolved analysis of Cas A based on Spitzer and Herschel infrared and submillimetre data at a common resolution of ~0.6 arcmin for this 5 arcmin diameter remnant following a careful removal of contaminating line emission and synchrotron radiation. We fit the dust continuum from 17 to 500 micron with a four-component interstellar medium (ISM) and supernova (SN) dust model. We find a concentration of cold dust in the unshocked ejecta of Cas A and derive a mass of 0.3-0.5 Msun of silicate grains freshly produced in the SNR, with a lower limit of >=0.1-0.2 Msun. For a mixture of 50% of silicate-type grains and 50% of carbonaceous grains, we derive a total SN dust mass between 0.4 Msun and 0.6 Msun. These dust mass estimates are higher than from most previous studies of Cas A and support the scenario of supernova dominated dust production at high redshifts. We furthermore derive an interstellar extinction map for the field around Cas A which towards Cas A gives average values of A_V=6-8 mag, up to a maximum of A_V=15 mag.