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The hot interstellar medium toward SN1987A

Abstract

AN X-RAY image of the field surrounding the supernova SN1987A, derived from the Einstein Observatory Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Survey, has allowed us to constrain the properties of the hot ionized medium along the line of sight to the supernova. If the absorption feature observed in the optical spectrum of the supernova at 6,379.7 Å1,2 is identified with [Fe X] λ = 6,375 Å, we find that an extraordinarily high iron abundance must be present, either in the hot interstellar medium of the LMC or in coronal gas between that galaxy and the Milky Way.

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Wang, Q., Hamilton, T. & Helfand, D. The hot interstellar medium toward SN1987A. Nature 341, 309–311 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/341309a0

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