2002A&A...392..955V

The X-ray emission from the young supernova remnant (SNR) N103B is measured and analysed using the high-resolution cameras and spectrometers on board XMM-Newton and Chandra. The spectrum from the entire remnant is reproduced very well with three plasma components of kT_e=0.55, 0.65, and 3.5keV, corresponding roughly to line emission by the O-K, Fe-L, and Fe-K species, respectively. Narrow band images reveal different morphologies for each component. The kT_e=0.65keV component, which dominates the emission measure (4.5x10⁶⁵m^–3), is in ionisation equilibrium. This provides a lower limit of 1200yrs to the age of the remnant, which is in agreement with the previously assumed age of the remnant (1500yrs). Based on the measured energy of the Fe-K feature at 6.5keV, the hot (3.5keV) component is found to be recently shocked (∼200yrs) and still ionising. The high elemental abundances of O and Ne and the low abundance of Fe could imply that N103B originated from a type II supernova (SN) rather than a type Ia SN as previously thought.