% TEX version of NRAO Radio CD-ROM image submission form % Version 91/3/28 J. J. Condon \nopagenumbers \centerline{\bf NRAO CD-ROM IMAGE SUBMISSION FORM} \bigskip \noindent Image Donor(s): R. Perley \bigskip \noindent Contact donor: R. Perley Mailing address: NRAO, Socorro \bigskip \bigskip Telephone: 505 835 7312 E-mail address: rperley@nrao.edu \bigskip \noindent Source or Image Name: Cassiopeia A \noindent Alternate Names: 3C 461 \noindent Description of Observation: (e.g., date of observation, telescope(s) used, frequencies, polarization type, resolution, deconvolution method) VLA multiconfiguration L-band ($\lambda \approx 20$ cm) observations, mapped with the AIPS maximum-entropy task VTESS, $1\as3$ resolution, corrected for primary-beam attenuation. \vfill \noindent Description of Image: (e.g., type of source, scientific reason for observing, notable source features) The radio structure of the galactic supernova remnant Cas A is complex and is distributed over a variety of spatial scales. A few major components are apparent. The most prominent is a bright ring of radio emission at a radius of $\sim 110''$ (1.7 pc at a distance of 2.9 pc). This bright ring is generally associated with a region of high magnetic field, amplified through Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities which develop at the contact surface between the comparatively dense supernova ejecta and the shock-heated interstellar medium as the remnant begins to decelerate. The bright ring has an expansion age of 950 yr, much longer than that of the fast-moving optical knots situated at a similar radius (300 yr), indicating that a substantial deceleration of the radio-emitting ejecta has already occurred. A plateau, or outer shell, of material is seen out to a radius of $140''$. A set of eleven paraboloidal features or bow shocks may indicate clumps of fast-moving ejecta which have penetrated the decelerated shell and are generating bow shocks in the material beyond the shells. The remnant is also covered by a network of faint filamentation, the nature of which is still unclear. These may be actual filaments of compressed gas, condensed under some type of cooling or dynamical instability, or perhaps they are features of numerous intersecting shock waves propagating through the remnant. \vfill \vfill \noindent Publication Reference(s): Anderson, M., Rudnick, L., Leppik, P., Perley, R., \& Braun, R. 1991, ApJ, 373, 146 \bigskip \bigskip \noindent Permission is granted to NRAO/AUI to use, distribute, sell, reproduce or authorize others to use, distribute, sell or reproduce the images listed above without reservation or restriction. The donor whose signature appears below agrees to inform all co-authors of this release. \bigskip \noindent Signed: R. Perley \medskip \noindent Date: 6/22/92 \eject \end