Abstract: In 1995, Aschenbach, et al identified X-ray emission from the direction of the Vela supernova remnant which seemed to be associated with the remnant but was outside the nominal shell. It was proposed that these extensions were "bullets" of material which had been ejected at high velocity when the progenitor went supernova. Other SNRs (Hughes, 1996- Tycho's SNR, Willingale, 2002- Cas A) have been shown to have such features. We have imaged the positions of these X-ray features with the UM/CTIO Curtis Schmidt telescope and have discovered optical emission coming from the locations of several of the Vela "bullets". The summer project will involve reduction of these optical images, as well as some associated spectroscopic data, to determine the nature of the optical emission and hopefully learn more about the nature of these bullets.
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About the Research References Reference materials consulted for this research. REU life/Photos Photos from our time in Chile... |
| ROSAT x-ray image of the Vela SNR with the bullets labelled A through F (from Aschenbach et al 1995) | |
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Cerro Tololo Home Page Chris Smith's page Chris is my advisor on the project. His page has more info on this project and other similar work. |
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| A region of the Cygnus Loop, another supernova remnant (from Levenson, et al, 1998). This is a false-color combination using [S II] in red, H-alpha in green, and [O III] in blue. |
Revised--15 Feb. 2002 by Jeff Carlin:
email:jcarlin@stars.sfsu.edu