INTERACTING SUPERNOVAE AND SUPERNOVA IMPOSTORS: SN 2009ip, IS THIS THE END?
- INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell'Osservatorio 5, I-35122 Padova (Italy)
- Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN (United Kingdom)
- Departamento de Ciencias Fisicas, Universidad Andres Bello, Avda. Republica 252, Santiago (Chile)
- Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network Inc., Santa Barbara, CA 93117 (United States)
- Max-Planck-Institut fuer Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, D-85741 Garching (Germany)
- INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Salita Moiariello 16, I-80131 Napoli (Italy)
- Coral Towers Observatory, Coral Towers, Esplanade, Cairns 4870 (Australia)
- Laboratoire de Physique Nucleaire et de Hautes Energies, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie Paris 6, Universite Paris Diderot, Paris 7, CNRS-IN2P3, 4 place Jussieu, F-75252 Paris Cedex 05 (France)
- Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, CSIC, Apdo 3004, E-18080 Granada (Spain)
- INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, via Tiepolo 11, I-34143 Trieste (Italy)
- 2 Yandra Street, Vale Park, Adelaide, South Australia 5081 (Australia)
- Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai (IEEC-CSIC), Campus UAB, E-08193 Bellaterra (Spain)
- The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy, AlbaNova, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm (Sweden)
- Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen University, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen O (Denmark)
We report the results of a three-year-long dedicated monitoring campaign of a restless luminous blue variable (LBV) in NGC 7259. The object, named SN 2009ip, was observed photometrically and spectroscopically in the optical and near-infrared domains. We monitored a number of erupting episodes in the past few years, and increased the density of our observations during eruptive episodes. In this paper, we present the full historical data set from 2009 to 2012 with multi-wavelength dense coverage of the two high-luminosity events between 2012 August and September. We construct bolometric light curves and measure the total luminosities of these eruptive or explosive events. We label them the 2012a event (lasting {approx}50 days) with a peak of 3 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 41} erg s{sup -1}, and the 2012b event (14 day rise time, still ongoing) with a peak of 8 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 42} erg s{sup -1}. The latter event reached an absolute R-band magnitude of about -18, comparable to that of a core-collapse supernova (SN). Our historical monitoring has detected high-velocity spectral features ({approx}13,000 km s{sup -1}) in 2011 September, one year before the current SN-like event. This implies that the detection of such high-velocity outflows cannot, conclusively, point to a core-collapse SN origin. We suggest that the initial peak in the 2012a event was unlikely to be due to a faint core-collapse SN. We propose that the high intrinsic luminosity of the latest peak, the variability history of SN 2009ip, and the detection of broad spectral lines indicative of high-velocity ejecta are consistent with a pulsational pair-instability event, and that the star may have survived the last outburst. The question of the survival of the LBV progenitor star and its future fate remain open issues, only to be answered with future monitoring of this historically unique explosion.
- OSTI ID:
- 22167466
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 767, 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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