X-ray High Resolution and Imaging Spectroscopy of Supernova Remnants

The launch of Chandra and XMM-Newton has led to important new findings concerning the X-ray emission from supernova remnants. These findings are a result of the high spatial resolution with which imaging spectroscopy is now possible, but also some useful results have come out of the grating spectrometers of both X-ray observatories, despite the extended nature of supernova remnants. The findings discussed here are the evidence for slow equilibration of electron and ion temperatures near fast supernova remnant shocks, the magnetic field amplification near remnant shocks due to cosmic ray acceleration, a result that has come out of studying narrow filaments of X-ray synchrotron emission, and finally the recent findings concerning Fe-rich ejecta in Type Ia remnants and the presence of a jet/counter jet system in the Type Ib supernova remnant Cas A.