What is the expected longevity of the expanding gaseous shell of an SNR?
Answer
Tens of thousands of years.
The supernova remnant, which is the visible, gaseous shell glowing due to the shock wave heating, is structurally transient on astronomical timescales. This shell represents the immediate, energetic aftermath of the explosion, and over time, it expands, cools down, and eventually dissipates or merges into the general interstellar medium. This process of integration back into the galaxy takes an estimated duration spanning tens of thousands of years. In stark contrast, the core remnant formed at the center—the neutron star or black hole—persists effectively forever on human or even galactic timescales.
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