The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2024)
A JWST Survey of the Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A
- Dan Milisavljevic,
- Tea Temim,
- Ilse De Looze,
- Danielle Dickinson,
- J. Martin Laming,
- Robert Fesen,
- John C. Raymond,
- Richard G. Arendt,
- Jacco Vink,
- Bettina Posselt,
- George G. Pavlov,
- Ori D. Fox,
- Ethan Pinarski,
- Bhagya Subrayan,
- Judy Schmidt,
- William P. Blair,
- Armin Rest,
- Daniel Patnaude,
- Bon-Chul Koo,
- Jeonghee Rho,
- Salvatore Orlando,
- Hans-Thomas Janka,
- Moira Andrews,
- Michael J. Barlow,
- Adam Burrows,
- Roger Chevalier,
- Geoffrey Clayton,
- Claes Fransson,
- Christopher Fryer,
- Haley L. Gomez,
- Florian Kirchschlager,
- Jae-Joon Lee,
- Mikako Matsuura,
- Maria Niculescu-Duvaz,
- Justin D. R. Pierel,
- Paul P. Plucinsky,
- Felix D. Priestley,
- Aravind P. Ravi,
- Nina S. Sartorio,
- Franziska Schmidt,
- Melissa Shahbandeh,
- Patrick Slane,
- Nathan Smith,
- Niharika Sravan,
- Kathryn Weil,
- Roger Wesson,
- J. Craig Wheeler
Affiliations
- Dan Milisavljevic
- ORCiD
- Purdue University , Department of Physics and Astronomy, 525 Northwestern Avenue, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA; Integrative Data Science Initiative, Purdue University , West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
- Tea Temim
- ORCiD
- Princeton University , 4 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Ilse De Looze
- ORCiD
- Sterrenkundig Observatorium, Ghent University , Krijgslaan 281—S9, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
- Danielle Dickinson
- ORCiD
- Purdue University , Department of Physics and Astronomy, 525 Northwestern Avenue, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
- J. Martin Laming
- ORCiD
- Space Science Division , Code 7684, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA
- Robert Fesen
- ORCiD
- 6127 Wilder Lab, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College , Hanover, NH 03755, USA
- John C. Raymond
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics , Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Richard G. Arendt
- ORCiD
- Center for Space Sciences and Technology, University of Maryland , Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA; Code 665, NASA/GSFC , 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA; Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology, NASA/GSFC , Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- Jacco Vink
- ORCiD
- Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy & GRAPPA, University of Amsterdam , Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands; SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research , Niels Bohrweg 4, 2333 CA Leiden, The Netherlands
- Bettina Posselt
- ORCiD
- Department of Astrophysics, University of Oxford , Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK; Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University , 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802, USA
- George G. Pavlov
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University , 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802, USA
- Ori D. Fox
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Ethan Pinarski
- ORCiD
- Purdue University , Department of Physics and Astronomy, 525 Northwestern Avenue, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
- Bhagya Subrayan
- ORCiD
- Purdue University , Department of Physics and Astronomy, 525 Northwestern Avenue, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
- Judy Schmidt
- ORCiD
- Astrophysics Source Code Library, Michigan Technological University , 1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton, MI 49931, USA
- William P. Blair
- ORCiD
- The William H. Miller III Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Armin Rest
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; The William H. Miller III Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Daniel Patnaude
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics , Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Bon-Chul Koo
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University , Seoul 08861, Republic of Korea
- Jeonghee Rho
- ORCiD
- SETI Institute , 189 Bernardo Avenue, Suite 200, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University , Gwanak-ro 1, Gwanak-gu, South Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
- Salvatore Orlando
- ORCiD
- INAF—Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo , Piazza del Parlamento 1, 90134 Palermo, Italy
- Hans-Thomas Janka
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik , Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85748, Garching, Germany
- Moira Andrews
- Purdue University , Department of Physics and Astronomy, 525 Northwestern Avenue, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
- Michael J. Barlow
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London , Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
- Adam Burrows
- ORCiD
- Princeton University , 4 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Roger Chevalier
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia , P.O. Box 400325, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4325, USA
- Geoffrey Clayton
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University , Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
- Claes Fransson
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University , The Oskar Klein Centre, AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
- Christopher Fryer
- ORCiD
- Center for Theoretical Astrophysics, Los Alamos National Laboratory , Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA; Department of Astronomy, The University of Arizona , Tucson, AZ 85721, USA; Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of New Mexico , Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA; Department of Physics, The George Washington University , Washington, DC 20052, USA
- Haley L. Gomez
- ORCiD
- Cardiff Hub for Astrophysical Research and Technology (CHART), School of Physics & Astronomy, Cardiff University , The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK
- Florian Kirchschlager
- ORCiD
- Sterrenkundig Observatorium, Ghent University , Krijgslaan 281—S9, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
- Jae-Joon Lee
- ORCiD
- Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Daejeon 305-348, Republic of Korea
- Mikako Matsuura
- ORCiD
- Cardiff Hub for Astrophysical Research and Technology (CHART), School of Physics & Astronomy, Cardiff University , The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK
- Maria Niculescu-Duvaz
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London , Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
- Justin D. R. Pierel
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Paul P. Plucinsky
- Center for Astrophysics , Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Felix D. Priestley
- ORCiD
- Cardiff Hub for Astrophysical Research and Technology (CHART), School of Physics & Astronomy, Cardiff University , The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK
- Aravind P. Ravi
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California , 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616-5270, USA
- Nina S. Sartorio
- ORCiD
- Sterrenkundig Observatorium, Ghent University , Krijgslaan 281—S9, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
- Franziska Schmidt
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London , Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
- Melissa Shahbandeh
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Patrick Slane
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics , Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Nathan Smith
- ORCiD
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Niharika Sravan
- Department of Physics, Drexel University , Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Kathryn Weil
- ORCiD
- Purdue University , Department of Physics and Astronomy, 525 Northwestern Avenue, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
- Roger Wesson
- ORCiD
- Cardiff Hub for Astrophysical Research and Technology (CHART), School of Physics & Astronomy, Cardiff University , The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK
- J. Craig Wheeler
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad324b
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 965,
no. 2
p. L27
Abstract
We present initial results from a James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) survey of the youngest Galactic core-collapse supernova remnant, Cassiopeia A (Cas A), made up of NIRCam and MIRI imaging mosaics that map emission from the main shell, interior, and surrounding circumstellar/interstellar material (CSM/ISM). We also present four exploratory positions of MIRI Medium Resolution Spectrograph integral field unit spectroscopy that sample ejecta, CSM, and associated dust from representative shocked and unshocked regions. Surprising discoveries include (1) a weblike network of unshocked ejecta filaments resolved to ∼0.01 pc scales exhibiting an overall morphology consistent with turbulent mixing of cool, low-entropy matter from the progenitor’s oxygen layer with hot, high-entropy matter heated by neutrino interactions and radioactivity; (2) a thick sheet of dust-dominated emission from shocked CSM seen in projection toward the remnant’s interior pockmarked with small (∼1″) round holes formed by ≲0.″1 knots of high-velocity ejecta that have pierced through the CSM and driven expanding tangential shocks; and (3) dozens of light echoes with angular sizes between ∼0.″1 and 1′ reflecting previously unseen fine-scale structure in the ISM. NIRCam observations place new upper limits on infrared emission (≲20 nJy at 3 μ m) from the neutron star in Cas A’s center and tightly constrain scenarios involving a possible fallback disk. These JWST survey data and initial findings help address unresolved questions about massive star explosions that have broad implications for the formation and evolution of stellar populations, the metal and dust enrichment of galaxies, and the origin of compact remnant objects.
Keywords
