3C 58 is a remnant in Cassiopeia powered by a young pulsar, long linked with a guest star recorded in Chinese and Japanese chronicles, a link now in doubt.
At a glance
| type | supernova remnant |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 6,520 light-years (2 kpc) |
| its light left it | 6,520 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 17 light-years acrossmodel |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with. Model marks a property of the piece’s galaxy model rather than a measurement.
About 3C 58 (SN 1181)
3C 58 takes its name from the Third Cambridge catalogue of radio sources. It is a pulsar wind nebula, like the Crab: a fast-spinning neutron star at its centre drives a wind of particles and magnetic field that glows in radio and X-rays, filling the nebula from within rather than lighting a hollow shell.
It sits in the region of Cassiopeia where Chinese and Japanese astronomers recorded a guest star, SN 1181, and for a long time it was taken as that event’s remnant. Its expansion and the pulsar’s properties, though, suggest it may be considerably older than the record would allow.
What you see in the piece
It is a small, faint object at its distance in visible light; the piece draws it as a shell of shocked gas, clearer in the radio band where such remnants shine.
Measured or modelled
Its identification with the recorded guest star is disputed; a different candidate, Pa 30, a faint nebula around a peculiar hot star elsewhere in Cassiopeia, has been proposed instead. SNRcat lists its type with a question mark, so the piece does not yet draw its wind nebula. The drawn extent is modelled.
Questions
Is 3C 58 the remnant of the guest star in the old chronicles?
It was long thought to be, but its apparent age is hard to square with the record, and another candidate has been proposed. The question is open.
How far away is 3C 58?
3C 58 is about 6,520 light-years (2 kpc) from the Sun.