Cassiopeia A

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3C461, Cassiopeia A, in X-rays

3C461, Cassiopeia A, observed by the Spitzer, Hubble and Chandra space telescopes

3C461, Cassiopeia A, observed by the Hubble Space Telescope

Cassiopeia A (Cas A) is a supernova remnant in the constellation Cassiopeia and the brightest extrasolar radio source in the sky, with a flux of 2720 janskies at 1 GHz. The supernova occurred approximately 10,000 light years away in the Milky Way^[1]. The expanding cloud of material left over from the supernova is now approximately 10 light years across. Despite its radio brilliance, however, it is extremely faint optically, and is only visible on long-exposure photographs.

It is believed to be approximately 300 years old but there are no historical records of any sightings of the progenitor supernova, probably due to interstellar dust absorbing optical wavelength radiation before it reached Earth. Possible explanations lean toward the idea that the source star was unusually massive and had previously ejected much of its outer layers. These outer layers would have cloaked the star and reabsorbed much of the light released as the inner star collapsed.

Cas A is 3C461 in the Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources and G111.7-2.1 in the Green Catalog of Supernova Remnants.

It is known that the expansion shell has a temperature of around 50 million degrees Fahrenheit (30 megakelvins), and is travelling at more than ten million miles per hour (4 Mm/s).

Cas A is the strongest radio source in the sky beyond our solar system, and was among the first discrete sources to be found, in 1947. The optical component was first identified in 1950. In 1979, Shklovsky predicted that Cas A had a black hole (Shklovsky, 1979). In 1999, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory found a "hot point-like source" [1] close to the center of the nebula that is quite likely the neutron star or black hole predicted but not previously found. (Pavlov, et al, 2000)

[edit] Expansion

Calculations working back from the currently observed expansion point to an explosion around 1667, although astronomer William Ashworth and others have suggested that the Astronomer Royal John Flamsteed may have inadvertently observed the supernova on August 16, 1680, when he catalogued a star near its position. At any rate, no supernova in the Milky Way has been visible to the naked eye from Earth since. Observations of the exploded star through the Hubble telescope have shown that, despite the original belief that the remnants were expanding in an uniform manner, there are 2 opposing jets of debris that are traveling at 32 million miles per hour. This speed is estimated to be 20 million miles per hour faster than the rest of the debris^[1]. When the view of the expanding star uses colors to differntiate materials of different chemical compositions, it shows that similar materials often remain gathered together in the remnants of the explosion^[1].

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Stover, Dawn (2006), "Life In A Bubble", Popular Science, vol. 269, no. 6, p. 16

• Shklovsky IS (1979). "Is Cassiopeia A a black hole?". Nature 279 (5715): 703. PMID 16067999.
• Pavlov GG, Zavlin VE, Aschenbach B, Trumper J, Sanwal D (2000). "The Compact Central Object in Cassiopeia A: A Neutron Star with Hot Polar Caps or a Black Hole?". Astrophysical Journal 531 (1): L53-L56. PMID 10673413.