Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Chandra observations of SN 1987A: the soft X-ray light curve revisited. (arXiv:1212.2664v1 [astro-ph.HE])

Chandra observations of SN 1987A: the soft X-ray light curve revisited. (arXiv:1212.2664v1 [astro-ph.HE]):
We report on the present stage of SN 1987A as observed by the Chandra X-ray
Observatory. We reanalyze published Chandra observations and add three more
epochs of Chandra data to get a consistent picture of the evolution of the
X-ray fluxes in several energy bands. We discuss the implications of several
calibration issues for Chandra data. Using the most recent Chandra calibration
files, we find that the 0.5-2.0 keV band fluxes of SN 1987A have increased by
~6 x 10 ^-13 erg s^-1 cm^-2 per year since 2009. This is in contrast with our
previous result that the 0.5-2.0 keV light curve showed a sudden flattening in
2009. Based on our new analysis, we conclude that the forward shock is still in
full interaction with the equatorial ring.

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