Volume 12 Number 3 Spring 1996 Lifting the Mask of Young Supernova Remnants Astronomy Graduate student Robbie C. Dohm-Palmer, working with Professor Tom Jones of the Astronomy Department, has recently completed a project to study the interaction of young supernova remnants with the edges of molecular gas clouds. Supernovae are violent explosions that mark the end of life for certain types of stars. Light output during the explosion can exceed a billion times that of the Sun, an output of about 10^35 watts. The mass of the exploding star, which exceeds that of our Sun by a large factor, is ejected at speeds of several thousand kilometers per second. This expanding blast wave that sweeps up and heats the surrounding material is labeled a supernova remnant, since it is what is left behind by the supernova explosion. "Lifting the Mask of Supernova Remnants?" continued In This Issue: Supernova Remnants Upcoming Symposia People & Visitors Obituary Seminar Synopses Research Reports An image of the density structure of a supernova explosion originating on the edge of a giant interstellar molecular gas cloud after 650 years. The colors represent density values. Black and red represent low values; yellow and green, middle values; blue and white, high values. The molecular cloud edge is modeled as a smooth transition in density, which can been seen in the background, with the high density molecular material on the right-hand side. The internal dynamics of the remnant are very complex. The dense fingers and knots result from the Rayleigh-Taylor fluid instability at the boundary between the stellar and the surrounding matter. At this late stage the remnant shape is highly deformed by the non-uniform external density.