Remnant of an Explosion With a Powerful Kick?

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has detected a compact object within the supernova remnant G350.1+0.3 that may be the dense core of the star that exploded. The position of this likely neutron star is well away from the center of the X-ray emission. If the supernova explosion occurred near the center of the X-ray emission then the neutron star must have received a powerful kick in the supernova explosion.

This supernova remnant is between 600 and 1,200 years old. If the estimated location of the explosion is correct, this means that the neutron star has been moving at a speed of at least 3 million miles per hour since the explosion. This is comparable to the exceptionally high speed derived for the neutron star in Puppis A and provides new evidence that extremely powerful “kicks” can be imparted to neutron stars from supernova explosions.

Another intriguing aspect of G350.1+0.3 is its unusual shape. While many supernova remnants are nearly circular, G350.1+0.3 is strikingly asymmetrical as seen in the Chandra data in this image (gold). Infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope (light blue) also trace the morphology found by Chandra. Astronomers think that this bizarre shape is due to the stellar debris field expanding into a nearby cloud of cold molecular gas.