INTERACTING SUPERNOVAE AND SUPERNOVA IMPOSTORS: SN 2009ip, IS THIS THE END?

By A. Pastorello, E. Cappellaro, C. Inserra, S. Smartt, G. Pignata, S. Benetti, S. Valenti, Morgan Fraser, K. Takáts, S. Benitez and 34 more. 2012

175 citations recorded by the source corpus.

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 ∼50 days) with a peak of 3 × 1041 erg s−1, and the 2012b event (14 day rise time, still ongoing) with a peak of 8 × 1042 erg s−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 (∼13,000 km s−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.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/385501b0bc3f6840f7e71e0d3588daf7612a5645

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. S. Smartt
2. N. Smith
3. S. Valenti
4. Stan Woosley
5. A. Piro
6. Ryan Chornock
7. A. Gal-yam
8. V. Morozova

Citations in the corpus

• PESSTO: survey description and products from the first data release by the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects (2014, methodology): “– Variability history – for example pre-discovery outburst such as SN 2006jc, SN 2009ip, SN 2010mc (Pastorello et al. 2007, 2013; Fraser et al. 2013; Ofek et al. 2013).”
• Unifying Type II Supernova Light Curves with Dense Circumstellar Material (2016, background): “…direct detections of preSN outbursts (e.g., Foley et al. 2007; Pastorello et al. 2007; Smith et al. 2010; Foley et al. 2011; Mauerhan et al. 2013; Pastorello et al. 2013) or inferred from the dense CSM needed to explain SN light curves (e.g., Smith & McCray 2007; Smith et al. 2007; Ofek et al.…”
• Observational Constraints on the Progenitors of Core-Collapse Supernovae: The Case for Missing High-Mass Stars (2015, background): “…a luminosity similar to the brightest known LBV giant outbursts (the ‘2012a’ event; MV −15, log L = 41.5 erg s−1), which was followed by a 10 day rise to SN luminosities (the ‘2012b’ event; MV −18, log L = 43 erg s−1) (monitored by Pastorello et al. 2013; Mauerhan et al. 2013; Prieto et al. 2013).”
• Fundamental properties of core-collapse Supernova and GRB progenitors: predicting the look of massive stars before death (2013, background): “In a few cases, a very luminous progenitor (MV ∼ −10 mag) has been detected in pre-explosion images, such as the progenitors of SN 2005gl (Gal-Yam & Leonard 2009), SN 2009ip (Smith et al. 2010; Mauerhan et al. 2013; Foley et al. 2011; Pastorello et al. 2013), and SN 2010jl (Smith et al. 2011b).”
• PREPARING FOR AN EXPLOSION: HYDRODYNAMIC INSTABILITIES AND TURBULENCE IN PRESUPERNOVAE (2013, background): “A number of detailed studies of the SN have now been published (Mauerhan et al. 2013; Prieto et al. 2013; Pastorello et al. 2013; Fraser et al. 2013; Smith et al. 2013, 2014; Margutti et al. 2014; Ofek et al. 2013a).”
• HIGH-DENSITY CIRCUMSTELLAR INTERACTION IN THE LUMINOUS TYPE IIn SN 2010jl: THE FIRST 1100 DAYS (2013, background): “Besides the discussed SNe, two recent Type IIn SNe SN 2009ip (Smith et al. 2010; Foley et al. 2011; Pastorello et al. 2013; Mauerhan et al. 2013) and SN 2010mc (Ofek et al. 2013) have received considerable attention.”
• Mass Loss: Its Effect on the Evolution and Fate of High-Mass Stars (2014, methodology): “…although there has been some controversy about whether the 2012 event was a core-collapse SN (Mauerhan et al. 2013a, Ofek et al. 2013a,a, Prieto et al. 2013, Smith et al. 2014) or some type of extremely bright non-terminal event (Fraser et al. 2013a, Margutti et al. 2013, Pastorello et al. 2013).”