A panchromatic view of the restless SN 2009ip reveals the explosive ejection of a massive star envelope
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ 08540 (United States)
- Department of Physics, University of Ferrara, via Saragat 1, I-44122 Ferrara (Italy)
- University College London, MSSL, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT (United Kingdom)
- Department of Astronomy and the Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm (Sweden)
- CASA, Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado, 389-UCB, Boulder, CO 80309 (United States)
- National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Pune University Campus, Ganeshkhind, Pune 411007 (India)
- Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, New York University, 4 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003 (United States)
- George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Texas A. and M. University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 4242 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-1205 (United States)
- Space Science Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375-5352 (United States)
- CEOU/Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742 (Korea, Republic of)
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory, P.O. Box O, Socorro, NM 87801 (United States)
The double explosion of SN 2009ip in 2012 raises questions about our understanding of the late stages of massive star evolution. Here we present a comprehensive study of SN 2009ip during its remarkable rebrightenings. High-cadence photometric and spectroscopic observations from the GeV to the radio band obtained from a variety of ground-based and space facilities (including the Very Large Array, Swift, Fermi, Hubble Space Telescope, and XMM) constrain SN 2009ip to be a low energy (E ∼ 10{sup 50} erg for an ejecta mass ∼0.5 M {sub ☉}) and asymmetric explosion in a complex medium shaped by multiple eruptions of the restless progenitor star. Most of the energy is radiated as a result of the shock breaking out through a dense shell of material located at ∼5 × 10{sup 14} cm with M ∼ 0.1 M {sub ☉}, ejected by the precursor outburst ∼40 days before the major explosion. We interpret the NIR excess of emission as signature of material located further out, the origin of which has to be connected with documented mass-loss episodes in the previous years. Our modeling predicts bright neutrino emission associated with the shock break-out if the cosmic-ray energy is comparable to the radiated energy. We connect this phenomenology with the explosive ejection of the outer layers of the massive progenitor star, which later interacted with material deposited in the surroundings by previous eruptions. Future observations will reveal if the massive luminous progenitor star survived. Irrespective of whether the explosion was terminal, SN 2009ip brought to light the existence of new channels for sustained episodic mass loss, the physical origin of which has yet to be identified.
- OSTI ID:
- 22348356
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 780, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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