Supernova Facts

   Back

                                      N 49 (DEM L 190)

   N 49, or DEM L 190 is a supernova remnant within the Large Magellanic

Cloud (LMC), a nearby, small companion galaxy to the Milky Way visible from

the southern hemisphere. This remnant is from a massive star that died in a

supernova blast whose light would have reached Earth thousands of years

ago. This filamentary material will eventually be recycled into building new

generations of stars in the LMC.

   This structure also harbors a very powerful spinning neutron star that may

be the central remnant from the initial blast. It is common for the core of an

exploded supernova star to become a spinning neutron star (also called a

pulsar - because of the regular pulses of energy from the rotational spin)

after the immediate shedding of the star's outer layers. In the case of N 49,

not only is the neutron star spinning at a rate of once every 8 seconds, it also

has a super-strong magnetic field a thousand trillion times stronger than

Earth's magnetic field. This places this star into the exclusive class of objects

called "magnetars".

   These objects are a peculiar class of stars producing gamma rays that are

less energetic than those emitted by most gamma-ray bursters. The neutron

star in N 49 is also emitting X-rays, whose energies are slightly less than that

of soft gamma rays. High-resolution X-ray satellites have resolved a point

source near the center of N 49, the likely X-ray counterpart of the soft

gamma-ray repeater. Diffuse filaments and knots throughout the supernova

remnant are also visible in X-ray. The filamentary features visible in the

optical image represent the blast wave sweeping through the ambient

interstellar medium and nearby dense molecular clouds.

Image and Data Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

EduWear^TMEducational Apparel