Asymmetric supernova remnants generated by Galactic, massive runaway stars

Understand

After the death of a runaway massive star, its supernova shock wave interacts with the bow shocks produced by its defunct progenitor, and may lose energy, momentum, and its spherical symmetry before expanding into the local interstellar medium (ISM).

• We investigate whether the initial mass and space velocity of these progenitors can be associated with asymmetric supernova remnants.
• We run hydrodynamical models of supernovae exploding in the pre-shaped medium of moving Galactic core-collapse progenitors.
• We find that bow shocks that accumulate more than about 1.5 Mo generate asymmetric remnants.