A neutron star with a carbon atmosphere in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant

Wynn C. G. Ho () and Craig O. Heinke ()
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Wynn C. G. Ho: School of Mathematics, University of Southampton
Craig O. Heinke: University of Alberta, Room 238 CEB, 11322-89 Avenue, Edmonton, AB T6G 2G7, Canada

Nature, 2009, vol. 462, issue 7269, 71-73

Abstract: Cas A: a neutron star with atmosphere The hot neutron stars left behind by supernova explosions are thought to posses a thin atmosphere, but despite extensive searches, observations have so far been unable to confirm the atmospheric composition of an isolated neutron star. Wynn Ho and Craig Heinke have now repaired that omission by analysing archival observations — made by the Chandra satellite observatory in 2004 — of the compact X-ray source in the centre of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. The spectrum of the Cas A neutron star corresponds to that predicted for a carbon atmosphere, and suggests that there is nuclear burning in the surface layers of what may be, at about 300 years old, the youngest known neutron star.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1038/nature08525

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