2008/04/24 by B. M. Gaensler, A. Tanna, Patrick Slane +11 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Cassiopeia A #Compact star #Ion #Ionization #Neutron star #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Supernova #Supernova remnant #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/589650
6 pages, uses emulateapj. One B/W figure, one color figure. Minor text changes and update to Fig 2 following referee's report. ApJ Letters, in press
arxiv created 2008/04/24 · openalex publication_date 2008/05/13 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present an XMM-Newton observation of the long-overlooked radio source G350.1–0.3. The X-ray spectrum of G350.1–0.3 can be fit by a shocked plasma with two components: a high-temperature (1.5 keV) region with a low ionization timescale and enhanced abundances, plus a cooler (0.36 keV) component in ionization equilibrium and with solar abundances. The X-ray spectrum and the presence of nonthermal, polarized, radio emission together demonstrate that G350.1–0.3 is a young, luminous supernova remnant (SNR), for which archival H I and 12 CO data indicate a distance of 4.5 kpc. The diameter of the source then implies an age of only ≈900 years. The SNR's distorted appearance and small size and the presence of 12 CO emission along the SNR's eastern edge all indicate that the source is interacting with a complicated distribution of dense ambient material. An unresolved X-ray source, XMMU J172054.5–372652, is detected a few arcminutes west of the brightest SNR emission. The thermal X-ray spectrum and lack of any multiwavelength counterpart suggest that this source is a neutron star associated with G350.1–0.3, most likely a "central compact object," as seen coincident with other young SNRs such as Cassiopeia A.