Supernovae. Old supernova dust factory revealed at the Galactic center

R M Lau; T L Herter; M R Morris; Z Li; J D Adams

doi:10.1126/science.aaa2208

Supernovae. Old supernova dust factory revealed at the Galactic center

Science. 2015 Apr 24;348(6233):413-8. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa2208. Epub 2015 Mar 19.

Authors

R M Lau¹, T L Herter², M R Morris³, Z Li⁴, J D Adams⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. ryanl@astro.cornell.edu.
² Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, 430 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
⁴ School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, China.
⁵ Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Science Center, Universities Space Research Association, NASA Ames Research Center, MS 232, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA.

PMID: 25791082
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa2208

Abstract

Dust formation in supernova ejecta is currently the leading candidate to explain the large quantities of dust observed in the distant, early universe. However, it is unclear whether the ejecta-formed dust can survive the hot interior of the supernova remnant (SNR). We present infrared observations of ~0.02 solar masses of warm (~100 kelvin) dust seen near the center of the ~10,000-year-old Sagittarius A East SNR at the Galactic center. Our findings indicate the detection of dust within an older SNR that is expanding into a relatively dense surrounding medium (electron density ~10(3) centimeters(-3)) and has survived the passage of the reverse shock. The results suggest that supernovae may be the dominant dust-production mechanism in the dense environment of galaxies of the early universe.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.