We present an improved model for the absorption of X-rays in the interstellar medium (ISM) intended for use with data from future X-ray missions with larger e †ective areas and increased energy resolution such as Chandra and the X-Ray Multiple Mirror mission, in the energy range eV. Compared with Z100 previous work, our formalism includes recent updates to the photoionization cross section and revised abundances of the interstellar medium, as well as a treatment of interstellar grains and the molecule. H 2 We review the theoretical and observational motivations behind these updates and provide a subroutine for the X-ray spectral analysis program XSPEC that incorporates our model.

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We explore a simple model for the high luminosity of SN 2006gy involving photon diffusion of shock-deposited thermal energy. The distinguishing property of the model is that the large "stellar" radius of ∼160 AU required to prevent adiabatic losses is not the true stellar radius, but rather, it is the radius of an opaque, unbound circumstellar envelope, created when ∼10 M , was ejected in the decade before the supernova in an eruption analogous to that of h Carinae. The supernova light is produced primarily by diffusion of thermal energy following the passage of the blast wave through this shell. This model differs from traditional models of supernova debris interacting with an external circumstellar medium (CSM) in that here the shell is optically thick and the escape of radiation is delayed. We show that any model attempting to account for SN 2006gy's huge luminosity with radiation emitted by ongoing CSM interaction fails for the following basic reason: the CSM density required to achieve the observed luminosity makes the same circumstellar envelope opaque ( ), forcing a thermal t տ 300 diffusion solution. In our model, the weaker CSM interaction giving rise to SN 2006gy's characteristic Type IIn spectrum and soft X-rays is not linked to the power source of the visual continuum; instead, it arises after the blast wave breaks free from the opaque shell into the surrounding wind. While a simple diffusion model can explain the gross properties of the early light curve of SN 2006gy, it predicts that the light curve must plummet rapidly at late times, unless an additional power source is present.

Stellar winds and repeated supernovae from an OB association will create a cavity of coronal gas in the interstellar medium, with radius greater than 100 pc, surrounded by a dense, expanding shell of cool interstellar gas. If the association has a typical initial mass function, its supernovae explosions will inject energy into the supershell at a nearly constant rate for about 5 x 10 7 yr. The supershellloses its interior pressure and enters the snowplow phase when radiative cooling becomes important or when the shell bursts through the gas disk of a galaxy, typically after a few times 10 7 yr and with a radius-100-300 pc. At approximately the same time, the supershell becomes gravitationally unstable, forming giant molecular clouds which are sites for new star formation. There is widespread evidence for supershells in the Milky Way and other spiral and irregular galaxies from 21 em emission-line surveys, optical emission-line surveys, and studies of supernova remnants. The gravitational instability of the supershells provides a physical mechanism for induced star formation and may account for bursts of star formation, especially in irregular galaxies.

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Supernova (SN) explosions are crucial engines driving the evolution of galaxies by shock heating gas, increasing the metallicity, creating dust, and accelerating energetic particles. In 2012 we used the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array to observe SN 1987A, one of the best-observed supernovae since the invention of the telescope. We present spatially resolved images at 450 µm, 870 µm, 1.4 mm, and 2.8 mm, an important transition wavelength range. Longer wavelength emission is dominated by synchrotron radiation from shock-accelerated particles, shorter wavelengths by emission from the largest mass of dust measured in a supernova remnant (>0.2 M ). For the first time we show unambiguously that this dust has formed in the inner ejecta (the cold remnants of the exploded star's core). The dust emission is concentrated to the center of the remnant, so the dust has not yet been affected by the shocks. If a significant fraction survives, and if SN 1987A is typical, supernovae are important cosmological dust producers.