No cold dust within the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A

Oliver Krause (), Stephan M. Birkmann, George H. Rieke, Dietrich Lemke, Ulrich Klaas, Dean C. Hines and Karl D. Gordon
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Oliver Krause: University of Arizona
Stephan M. Birkmann: Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie
George H. Rieke: University of Arizona
Dietrich Lemke: Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie
Ulrich Klaas: Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie
Dean C. Hines: Space Science Institute
Karl D. Gordon: University of Arizona

Nature, 2004, vol. 432, issue 7017, 596-598

Abstract: Abstract A large amount (about three solar masses) of cold (18 K) dust in the prototypical type II supernova remnant Cassiopeia A was recently reported1. It was concluded that dust production in type II supernovae can explain how the large quantities (∼ 108 solar masses) of dust observed2 in the most distant quasars could have been produced within only 700 million years after the Big Bang. Foreground clouds of interstellar material, however, complicate the interpretation of the earlier submillimetre observations of Cas A. Here we report far-infrared and molecular line observations that demonstrate that most of the detected submillimetre emission originates from interstellar dust in a molecular cloud complex located in the line of sight between the Earth and Cas A, and is therefore not associated with the remnant. The argument that type II supernovae produce copious amounts of dust is not supported by the case of Cas A, which previously appeared to provide the best evidence for this possibility.

Date: 2004
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DOI: 10.1038/nature03110

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