0103–72.6: A New Oxygen-rich Supernova Remnant in the Small Magellanic Cloud

0103-72.6, the second brightest X-ray supernova remnant (SNR) in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), has been observed with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Our Chandra observation unambiguously resolves the X-ray emission into a nearly complete, remarkably circular shell surrounding bright clumpy emission in the center of the remnant. The observed X-ray spectrum for the central region is evidently dominated by emission from reverse-shock-heated metal-rich ejecta. Elemental abundances in this ejecta material are particularly enhanced in oxygen and neon, while less prominent in the heavier elements Si, S, and Fe. We thus propose that 0103-72.6 is a new "oxygen-rich" SNR, making it only the second member of the class in the SMC. The outer shell is the limb-brightened soft X-ray emission from the swept-up SMC interstellar medium. The presence of O-rich ejecta and the SNR's location within an H II region attest to a massive star core-collapse origin for 0103-72.6. The elemental abundance ratios derived from the ejecta suggest an ~18 M☉ progenitor star.