Distribution of supernovae, supernova remnants and exponential disks

Abstract

Using a sample of 132 supernovae in spiral and irregular galaxies, an argument is presented for their preferential belonging to the plane of the parent galaxy; their surface density distribution is determined and, fitting it with an exponential law, we find a slope which statistically agrees with that of the surface brightness of the disks of 37 spiral galaxies for which detailed photometry is available. Adopting the same surface density distribution for the Galaxy as well, we can calculate the expected distribution of a complete sample of supernova remnants and find that it agrees with the one observed.