JWST observations of dust reservoirs in type IIP supernovae 2004et and 2017eaw

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  • Melissa Shahbandeh
  • Tea Temim
  • Tamás Szalai
  • Ori D. Fox
  • Samaporn Tinyanont
  • Eli Dwek
  • Luc Dessart
  • Alexei V. Filippenko
  • Thomas G. Brink
  • Ryan J. Foley
  • Jacob Jencson
  • Justin Pierel
  • Szanna Zsíros
  • Armin Rest
  • Wei Kang Zheng
  • Jennifer Andrews
  • Geoffrey C. Clayton
  • Kishalay De
  • Michael Engesser
  • Suvi Gezari
  • Sebastian Gomez
  • Shireen Gonzaga
  • Joel Johansson
  • Mansi Kasliwal
  • Ryan Lau
  • Ilse De Looze
  • Anthony Marston
  • Dan Milisavljevic
  • Richard O'Steen
  • Matthew Siebert
  • Michael Skrutskie
  • Nathan Smith
  • Lou Strolger
  • Schuyler D. Van Dyk
  • Qinan Wang
  • Brian Williams
  • Robert Williams
  • Lin Xiao
  • Yi Yang

Supernova (SN) explosions have been sought for decades as a possible source of dust in the Universe, providing the seeds of galaxies, stars, and planetary systems. SN 1987A offers one of the most promising examples of significant SN dust formation, but until the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), instruments have traditionally lacked the sensitivity at both late times (>1 yr post-explosion) and longer wavelengths (i.e. >10 μm) to detect analogous dust reservoirs. Here we present JWST/MIRI observations of two historic Type IIP SNe, 2004et and SN 2017eaw, at nearly 18 and 5 yr post-explosion, respectively. We fit the spectral energy distributions as functions of dust mass and temperature, from which we are able to constrain the dust geometry, origin, and heating mechanism. We place a 90 per cent confidence lower limit on the dust masses for SNe 2004et and 2017eaw of >0.014 and >4 × 10-4 M⊙, respectively. More dust may exist at even colder temperatures or may be obscured by high optical depths. We conclude dust formation in the ejecta to be the most plausible and consistent scenario. The observed dust is radiatively heated to ∼100-150 K by ongoing shock interaction with the circumstellar medium. Regardless of the best fit or heating mechanism adopted, the inferred dust mass for SN 2004et is the second highest (next to SN 1987A) mid-infrared inferred dust mass in extragalactic SNe thus far, promoting the prospect of SNe as potential significant sources of dust in the Universe.

Original languageEnglish
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume523
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)6048-6060
Number of pages13
ISSN0035-8711
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 May 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.

    Research areas

  • infrared: general, supernovae: general, supernovae: individual: SN 2004et, SN 2017eaw, transients: supernovae

ID: 361385802