Utuk Cenotaph

The Utuk Cenotaph (N49 or DEM L 190) is the brightest supernova remnant in the Bacterian Home Galaxy. It is about 75 light-years across. In the core of the remnant lies a soft repeating gamma ray source, known as the Fountain of Ninnigal.

History

A massive star produced a strong wind that cleared a low density bubble around it. When the star exhausted its supply of hydrogen, it exploded, sending a shock wave throught he interstellar gas. The shock wave has now encountered the shell of dense gas at the edge of the bubble. In the dense gas, the shock slows to 100 - 300 km/s and produces bright emission from neutral hydrogen, doubly ionized oxygen and four-times ionized neon. The neon emission is difficult to detect because it lies in the near Ultraviolet part of the spectrum.

It has million-degree gas in its center but cooler gas at the outer parts, between 8,000 and 300,000 degrees.

A massive dying star produced a strong wind that cleared a low density bubble around it. When the star exhausted its supply of hydrogen, it exploded, sending a shock wave through the interstellar gas. The shock wave has now encountered the shell of dense gas at the edge of the bubble, what slows the shock wave to 100 – 300 kilometers per second.

The delicate filaments and knots throughout the supernova remnant — also visible in X-ray — are sheets of debris from the stellar explosion. This filamentary material will eventually be recycled into building new generations of stars in the Bacterian Home Galaxy.

The unique filamentary structure has long set the Utuk Cenotaph apart from other well understood supernova remnants, as most supernova remnants appear roughly circular in visible light. This supernova remnant is expanding into a denser region to the southeast, which causes its asymmetrical appearance.