As part of the NHZ project, I was tasked with imaging the area around the SNR RCW86 by Tim Schaeffer.
Whilst no new areas of nebulosity were discovered here, I continued to collect predominantly Ha data in order to better define the boundaries of RCW86.
RCW86 is believed to be the first supernova remnant documented by humans back on Dec 7, 185A.D. when it was observed by Chinese astronomers. It apparently remained visible for around 8 months and reached a brightness similar to Mars.
RCW86 is located in the southern constellation of Circinus and is approximately 8,000 light years away and is about 85 light years in diameter. It is believed to have been a Type 1a supernova resulting from the death of a star which shrank to a white dwarf but later exploded in a supernova after siphoning matter from a nearby star.
From observations, it is believed that the white dwarf created a cavity around it before exploding as a Type 1a supernova which would explain why the supernova is so big as the expanding material from the explosion would have travelled unimpeded by gas and dust. Such cavities were thought to be only associated with core-collapse supernova but other evidence such as the presence of high amounts of iron were a telltale sign of a Type 1 a supernova event.
Also present in the image are two planetary nebula : G314.5-01.0 and G315.2-01.3
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