GALEX AND PAN-STARRS1 DISCOVERY OF SN IIP 2010aq: THE FIRST FEW DAYS AFTER SHOCK BREAKOUT IN A RED SUPERGIANT STAR

Journal Article · Wed Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/720/1/L77· OSTI ID:21452839

Gezari, S; Huber, M E; Grav, T ^[1]; Rest, A; Narayan, G ^[2]; Forster, K; Neill, J D; Martin, D C ^[3]; Valenti, S; Smartt, S J ^[4]; Chornock, R; Berger, E; Soderberg, A M ^[5]; Mattila, S; Kankare, E ^[6]; Burgett, W S; Chambers, K C; Dombeck, T; Heasley, J N

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 20138 (United States)
3. California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
4. Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Maths and Physics, Queen's University, BT7 1NN, Belfast (United Kingdom)
5. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
6. Tuorla Observatory, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku, Fl-21500, Piikkioe (Finland)

We present the early UV and optical light curve of Type IIP supernova (SN) 2010aq at z = 0.0862, and compare it to analytical models for thermal emission following SN shock breakout in a red supergiant star. SN 2010aq was discovered in joint monitoring between the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) Time Domain Survey (TDS) in the NUV and the Pan-STARRS1 Medium Deep Survey (PS1 MDS) in the g, r, i, and z bands. The GALEX and Pan-STARRS1 observations detect the SN less than 1 day after the shock breakout, measure a diluted blackbody temperature of 31, 000 {+-} 6000 K 1 day later, and follow the rise in the UV/optical light curve over the next 2 days caused by the expansion and cooling of the SN ejecta. The high signal-to-noise ratio of the simultaneous UV and optical photometry allows us to fit for a progenitor star radius of 700 {+-} 200R {sub sun}, the size of a red supergiant star. An excess in UV emission two weeks after shock breakout compared with SNe well fitted by model atmosphere-code synthetic spectra with solar metallicity is best explained by suppressed line blanketing due to a lower metallicity progenitor star in SN 2010aq. Continued monitoring of PS1 MDS fields by the GALEX TDS will increase the sample of early UV detections of Type II SNe by an order of magnitude and probe the diversity of SN progenitor star properties.

• OSTI ID: 21452839
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 720, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/720/1/L77; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
GALAXIES
PHOTOMETRY
SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO
SUPERGIANT STARS
SUPERNOVAE
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
VISIBLE RADIATION
BINARY STARS
DIMENSIONLESS NUMBERS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
EVOLUTION
GIANT STARS
RADIATIONS
STARS
VARIABLE STARS