Astron. Astrophys. 364, 732-740 (2000)

6. Conclusions

We have presented various radio observations of the newly recognised SNR RX J0852.0-4622, which clarify its size and morphology. Several features possibly associated with the remnant by Combi et al. (1999) are examined, and it is concluded that these are probably unrelated to RX J0852.0-4622.

Although the distance and age of RX J0852.0-4622 are not well determined, its faintness has some interesting implications for the statistical study of SNRs, namely that the surface-brightness limits of current radio surveys may miss faint, young remnants, as well as faint, old remnants. Clearly an accurate distance determination for this SNR is important, although this is difficult, given its faintness and the fact that it lies in a complex region of the sky, confused with emission from the much larger Vela SNR.

Note added in proof: The authors note a recent paper by Schönfelder et al. (2000), which concludes that the -ray detection of RX J0852.0-4622 is less statistically significant than was first thought.

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 2000

Online publication: January 29, 2001
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