2015ApJ...805..142L

Thermal X-ray emission from young supernova remnants (SNRs) is usually dominated by the emission lines of the supernova ejecta, which are widely believed to be crossed and thus heated by the inward-propagating reverse shock (RS). Previous works using X-ray imaging data have shown that the ejecta are heated by the RS by locating the peak emission region of the most recently ionized matter, which is found to be well separated toward the inside from the outermost boundary. Here we report the discovery of a systematic increase of the Sulfur (S) to Silicon (Si) Kα line flux ratio with radius in Tycho's SNR. This allows us, for the first time, to present continuous radial profiles of the ionization age and, furthermore, the elapsed ionization time since the onset of the ionization, which gives the history of the propagation of the ionization front into the SNR ejecta.