Prague Relativistic Astrophysics

Michaela Brchnelova

Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2013, international pre-college science competition.

In the following work we present X-ray dynamics measurements of the Tycho’s supernova remnant G120.1+01.4. We compare observations and spectra from 2005 and 2009 archived in XMM-Newton Science Archive in order to determine differences caused by collision with surrounding interstellar medium (ISM) as well as by remnant’s own expansion. We have calculated the azimuthal expansion of remnant’s edges to vary from 0.194 arcsec/yr to 0.438 arcsec/yr, while the highest values are found to have the azimuth of about 60° in the south-east and the lowest expansion overall is estimated on the north. Comparison of fluxes has shown that the highest estimated energy gain of 3.1 times was measured in reverse shock region around the azimuth of 300° in the energy range from 6.1 keV to 8 keV, whereas the highest energy loss was found to be in the same energy range in forward shock region with the azimuth of approximately 70° reaching 2.4 times lower energy compared with the values from 2005. We have also defined the most abundant heavy elements within energy scale from 200 eV to 8 keV, which are identified through spectral lines to be Fe XVIII (0.849 keV), Mg XI and XII (1.34 keV, 1.46 keV), Si XIII (1.83 keV), S XV (2.41 keV, 2.86 keV) and Ca XIX (3.84 keV).