Abstract
About 200 supernova remnants have been found in the galaxy1, six of which are younger than about 1,000 years (ref. 2). Observations of these young remnants are important for understanding of the late phases of supernova evolution, and each new object should add substantially to our knowledge of the processes involved. Here I report the discovery of a supernova remnant (RXJ0852.0 − 4622), identified by its X-ray emission, at the southeast corner of the known Vela supernova remnant. The high temperature (>3 × 107 K) indicates an age of less than ∼1,500 yr. The observed diameter of the remnant is about 2°, which suggests a distance of less than 1 kpc, based on a comparison with the remnant of the supernova of AD1006. RXJ0852.0 − 4622 may therefore be the nearest supernova to have occurred during recent human history.
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Acknowledgements
I thank D. Bock for permission to quote the Vela Z data before publication. I note that the discovery reported in this Letter was made in early 1996, but not published. The confirmation that RXJ0852.0 − 4622 is a young, nearby SNR separate from the Vela SNR came later from A. Iyudin. I thank A. Iyudin for telling me about the discovery of 44Ti γ-ray line emission from RXJ0852.0 − 4622 (ref. 13), which then prompted the current publication.
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Aschenbach, B. Discovery of a young nearby supernova remnant. Nature 396, 141–142 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/24103
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/24103
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