A team of astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile has discovered 307 new supernova remnants, including seven rare oxygen-rich ones. The discovery is presented in a research paper, published on the arXiv preprint server.
Supernova remnants (SNRs) are expanding structures that form after a star explodes and contain ejected material and interstellar matter accelerated by the shock wave. Some remnants are characterized by strong emission of oxygen atoms and are called oxygen-rich SNRs, but these are extremely rare.
For their study, the astronomers used a new method for detecting supernova remnants based on the analysis of emission lines. The observations were carried out using the MUSE instrument installed on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), which allowed them to identify hundreds of new objects.
As part of the PHANGS-MUSE survey, the researchers found 307 supernova remnants, of which 35 showed evidence of oxygen emission. Further analysis showed that seven of these objects had strong and broad oxygen lines, indicating that they were oxygen-rich.
Most of the supernova remnants found also have X-ray counterparts with luminosities of about 10-100 undecillion erg/s, close to the limit for ultraluminous X-ray sources. However, the researchers were unable to find direct links to known supernovae at the locations of the remnants.
The researchers noted that their work highlights the rarity of oxygen-rich supernova remnants and plan to extend the use of the new method to other galaxies to better understand the origin and properties of these objects.
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