XMM-Newton detects the beginning of the X-ray decline of SN 1995N

Abstract

We present the results of a new XMM-Newton observation of the interacting supernova 1995N, performed on July 27, 2003. We find that the 0.2-10.0 keV flux has dropt at a level of 1.44e-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1, about one order of magnitude lower than that of a previous ASCA observation performed on January 1998. The X-ray spectral analysis shows statistically significant evidence for the presence of two distinct components, that can be modeled with emission from optically thin, thermal plasmas at different temperatures. From these temperatures we derive that the exponent of the ejecta density distribution is n ~ 6.5.