High spatial resolution spectroscopy of G292.0+1.8 with Chandra

Abstract

We present high spatial resolution X-ray spectroscopy of supernova remnant G292.0+1.8 made with Chandra observations. The X-ray emitting region of this remnant was divided into 25×25 pixels with a scale of 20″ ×20″ each. Spectra of 328 pixels were created and fitted with an absorbed one component non-equilibrium ionization model. With the spectral analysis results, we obtained maps of absorbing column density, temperature, ionization age and abundances for O, Ne, Mg, Si, S and Fe. The abundances of O, Ne and Mg show tight correlations between each other in the range of about two orders of magnitude, suggesting that they are all from explosive C/Ne burning. Meanwhile, the abundances of Si and S are also well correlated, indicating that they are the ashes of explosive O-burning or incomplete Si-burning. The Fe emission lines are not prominent in the whole remnant, and their abundance is significantly reduced, indicating that the reverse shock may not have propagated to the Fe-rich ejecta. Based on relative abundances of O, Ne, Mg, Si and Fe to Si, we suggest a progenitor mass of 25 – 30 M⊙ for this remnant.