ON THE PROGENITOR AND SUPERNOVA OF THE SN 2002cx-LIKE SUPERNOVA 2008ge ,
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Harvard University, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen Oe (Denmark)
- Departamento de Ciencias Fisicas, Universidad Andres Bello, Avda. Republica 252, Santiago (Chile)
- Departamento de AstronomIa, Universidad de Chile, Santiago (Chile)
- Carnegie Observatories, Las Campanas Observatory, Casilla 601, La Serena (Chile)
We present observations of supernova (SN) 2008ge, which is spectroscopically similar to the peculiar SN 2002cx, and its pre-explosion site indicating that its progenitor was probably a white dwarf. NGC 1527, the host galaxy of SN 2008ge, is an S0 galaxy with no evidence of star formation or massive stars. Astrometrically matching late-time imaging of SN 2008ge to pre-explosion Hubble Space Telescope imaging, we constrain the luminosity of the progenitor star. Since SN 2008ge has no indication of hydrogen or helium in its spectrum, its progenitor must have lost its outer layers before exploding, meaning that it is a white dwarf, a Wolf-Rayet star, or a lower-mass star in a binary system. Observations of the host galaxy show no signs of individual massive stars, star clusters, or H II regions at the SN position or anywhere else, making a Wolf-Rayet progenitor unlikely. Late-time spectroscopy of SN 2008ge shows strong [Fe II] lines with large velocity widths compared to other members of this class at similar epochs. These previously unseen features indicate that a significant amount of the SN ejecta is Fe (presumably the result of the radioactive decay of {sup 56}Ni generated in the SN), further supporting a thermonuclear explosion. Placing the observations of SN 2008ge in the context of observations of other objects in the same class of SNe, we suggest that the progenitor was most likely a white dwarf.
- OSTI ID:
- 21443202
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 140, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-6256/140/5/1321; ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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