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Kinematics Of X‐Ray–Emitting Components In Cassiopeia A, Tracey Delaney, Lawrence Rudnick, Robert A. Fesen, T. W. Jones
Kinematics Of X‐Ray–Emitting Components In Cassiopeia A, Tracey Delaney, Lawrence Rudnick, Robert A. Fesen, T. W. Jones
Dartmouth Scholarship
We present high-resolution X-ray proper-motion measurements of Cassiopeia A using Chandra X-Ray Observatory observations from 2000 and 2002. We separate the emission into four spectrally distinct classes: Si-dominated, Fe-dominated, low-energy-enhanced, and continuum-dominated. These classes also represent distinct spatial and kinematic components. The Si- and Fe-dominated classes are ejecta and have a mean expansion rate of 0.2% yr-1. This is the same as for the forward shock filaments but less than the 0.3% yr-1 characteristic of optical ejecta. The low-energy-enhanced spectral class possibly illuminates a clumpy circumstellar component and has a mean expansion rate of 0.05% yr-1. The continuum-dominated emission likely …