HI 21CM OBSERVATIONS OF THE SUPERNOVA REMNANT PKS0607+17 AND THE HII REGION S261

초신성 잔해 PKS0607+17 및 HII 영역 S261의 HI 21CM선 관측 연구

  • Published : 1997.12.31

Abstract

We carried out high-resolution(FWHM=3' .3) HI 21 cm observations of the supernova remnant(SNR) PKS0607+17 and HII region S261 using Arecibo 305-m telescope. The observation was to investigate whether the high-velocity(HV) gas detected in the southern area of PKS0607+17 by Koo & Heiles(1991) is physically associated with the SNR or not. The velocity of the HV gas ranges from +64 km/s to +87 km/s, which is difficult to result from the Galactic rotation. The HV gas could be the gas accelerated by supernova blast wave. However, because the observation of Koo and Heiles(1991) was carried out using Hat Creek radio telescope(FWHM $\simeq$ 36'), the association of the HV gas with the SNR could not be investigated. Using the Arecibo HI 21cm data, we have found that the HV gas appears m the southern part of the SNR and its velocity ranges from +61 km/s to +77 km/s. But the HV gas is scattered m the whole field, not only toward PKS0607+17 but also outside the SNR Accordingly the HV gas is probably not associated with the SNR, but is accidentally aligned along the same line of sight toward the SNR. Instead we have found that HI clouds at low velocities could be possibly associated with the SNR. In Arecibo HI 21cm channel maps the HI gas seems to surround the southern boundary of the SNR at $V_{LSR}$ = +19.6 ~ +40.2 km/s. But because the region of the Arecibo HI 21cm observation is not wide enough to examine the HI gas distribution, we investigated this area using the Berkely low-latitude HI survey data(Weaver & Williams 1974) too. There we found HI gas surrounding the radio continuum boundary of PKS0607+17 at $V_{LSR}$ = +21.6 ~ +258 km/s. It is possible that this HI gas is associated with the SNR, in which case, the velocity of the SNR $V_o$ $\simeq$ +26 km/s, its distance d $\simeq$ 12.5 kpc and its radius R $\simeq$ 145 pc. If we assume that the expansion velocity is ~10 km/s, then the age of the SNR is $\sim4.4\times10^6$ years. PKS0607+17 could be one of the oldest SNRs in the Galaxy. We also studied HI propertities of the HII region S261, which is $\sim1^{\circ}$ away from PKS0607+17. There has been no high-resolution m 21 cm observational study on S261. We discovered HI cloud located at the north-eastern part of S261 at $V_{LSR}$ = +5 km/s ~ +10 km/s, which is possibly associated with the HII region. The central velocity of the HI cloud $V_{LSR}$ = +7.2 km/s and the corresponding distance d = 1.5 kpc. This velocity is comparable to the radio recombination line velocities.

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