H.E.S.S. observations of the supernova remnant RCW 86

Understand

The shell-type supernova remnant (SNR) RCW 86 - possibly associated with the historical supernova SN 185 - was observed during the past three years with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), an array of four atmospheric-Cherenkov telescopes located in Namibia.

• The multi-wavelength properties of RCW 86, e.g.
• weak radio emission and North-East X-ray emission almost entirely consisting of synchroton radiation, resemble those of two very-high energy (VHE; > 100 GeV) gamma-ray emitting SNRs RX J1713.7-3946 and RX J0852-4622.
• The H.E.S.S.