2008/05/29 by A. Rest, D. L. Welch, N. B. Suntzeff +16
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Cassiopeia A #Echo (communications protocol) #Galactic astronomy #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Milky Way #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Spectroscopy #Supernova #Supernova remnant #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/590427
4 pages, 4 color figures, accepted for publication in ApJL
arxiv created 2008/05/29 · openalex publication_date 2008/06/23 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report the discovery of an extensive system of scattered-light echo arclets associated with the recent supernovae in the local neighborhood of the Milky Way: Tycho (SN 1572) and Cassiopeia A. Existing work suggests that the Tycho SN was a thermonuclear explosion while the Cas A supernova was a core-collapse explosion. Precise classifications according to modern nomenclature require spectra of the outburst light. In the case of ancient SNe, this can only be done with spectroscopy of their light echo, where the discovery of the light echoes from the outburst light is the first step. Adjacent light echo positions suggest that Cas A and Tycho may share common scattering dust structures. If so, it is possible to measure precise distances between historical Galactic supernovae. Ongoing surveys that alert on the development of bright scattered-light echo features have the potential to reveal detailed spectroscopic information for many recent Galactic supernovae, both directly visible and obscured by dust in the Galactic plane.