X-Ray Emission from Supernovae as Probes of Stellar Environments
Stefan Immler (NASA/CRESST GSFC)
The interaction of outgoing SN shocks with material in their environments can give rise to large amounts of X-rays which are uniquely suited to measure the circumstellar matter (CSM) densities and the mass loss rates of their progenitor stars. Since SN shocks travel at speeds a thousand times larger than the stellar wind velocities, the X-ray observations can be used as a “time machine” to look back into the histories of the progenitors over periods of tens of thousands of years in the stellar evolution. I discuss the first comprehensive study of the environments of all SNe detected with orbiting X-ray observatories over the past three decades, with emphasis on recent results of SNe 2006bp, 2006jc and 2005kd obtained with Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Swift.