The bubble-like interior of the core-collapse supernova remnant Cassiopeia a

Abstract

The death of massive stars is believed to involve aspheric explosions initiated by the collapse of an iron core. The specifics of these catastrophic explosions remain uncertain, due partly to limited observational constraints on asymmetries deep inside the star. Here we present near-infrared observations of the young supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, descendant of a type IIb core-collapse explosion, and a three-dimensional map of its interior unshocked ejecta. The remnant's interior has a bubble-like morphology that smoothly connects to and helps explain the multiringed structures seen in the remnant's bright reverse-shocked main shell of expanding debris. This internal structure may originate from turbulent mixing processes that encouraged outwardly expanding plumes of radioactive 56Ni-rich ejecta. If this is true, substantial amounts of its decay product, 56Fe, may still reside in these interior cavities.