The Unprecedented Third Outburst of SN 2009ip: A Luminous Blue Variable Becomes a Supernova

By J. Mauerhan, N. Smith, A. Filippenko, K. Blanchard, P. Blanchard, Chadwick F. E. Casper, S. B. Cenko, K. Clubb, Daniel P. Cohen, K. Fuller and 2 more. 2012

245 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Some reports of supernova (SN) discoveries turn out not to be true core-collapse explosions. One such case was SN 2009ip, which was recognized to be a luminous blue variable (LBV) eruption. This source had a massive (50-80 Msun) hot progenitor star identified in pre-explosion data, it had documented evidence of pre-outburst variability, and it was subsequently discovered to have a 2nd outburst in 2010. This same source rebrightened again in 2012, and early spectra showed the same narrow-line profiles as before, suggesting another LBV-like eruption. We present new photometry and spectroscopy of SN 2009ip, indicating that its 3rd observed outburst in under 4 years appears to have transitioned into a genuine SN. The most striking discovery in these data is that unlike previous reports, the spectrum exhibited Balmer lines with very broad P-Cygni profiles characteristic of normal Type II supernovae (SNe II), in addition to narrow emission lines seen in SNe IIn and LBVs. Emission components have FWHM~8000 km/s, while the P-Cygni absorption component has blue wings extending to about -13,000 km/s. These features are typical of Type II SNe, but have never been seen in a nonterminal LBV-like eruption. Initially, the peak absolute magnitude of M_V~ -14.5 seemed fainter than that of normal SNe and faded much more rapidly. However, the source quickly brightened again to M_R=-17.6 mag, indicating that it is indeed a true SN. In this bright phase, the broad lines mostly disappeared, and the spectrum became dominated by broad-winged Lorentzian profiles of H-alpha and HeI that are characteristic of the early optically thick phases of luminous SNe IIn. We conclude that the most recent 2012 outburst of SN 2009ip is most likely a true core-collapse SN IIn that was initially faint, but then rapidly achieved high luminosities, as a result of interaction with circumstellar material (abridged).

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5a993f4975240ffbe5e1b0c8cd9cad713351e515

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. N. Smith
2. E. Berger
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4. Stan Woosley
5. Bing Zhang
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7. Ryan Chornock
8. A. Piro

Citations in the corpus

• PREPARING FOR AN EXPLOSION: HYDRODYNAMIC INSTABILITIES AND TURBULENCE IN PRESUPERNOVAE (2013, background): “The object then experienced several similar eruptions over 3 yrs that looked like additional LBV eruptions (unlike SN 2006jc, detailed spectra of these progenitor outbursts were obtained), culminating in a final SN explosion in 2012 (Mauerhan et al. 2013; Smith et al. 2014).”
• 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).”
• A PANCHROMATIC VIEW OF THE RESTLESS SN 2009ip REVEALS THE EXPLOSIVE EJECTION OF A MASSIVE STAR ENVELOPE (2013, background): “• We interpret the major 2012 re-brightening to be caused by the explosion shock breaking out through a compact and dense CSM shell previously ejected in the 2012a outburst.”
• Pulsational Pair-instability Supernovae (2016, background): “Still, observations hint that luminous blue stars, LBVs in particular, may be the immediate precursors of some unusual Type IIn supernovae Gal-Yam & Leonard (2009); Mauerhan et al. (2013); Smith et al. (2007); Taddia et al. (2013).”
• Unifying Type II Supernova Light Curves with Dense Circumstellar Material (2016, background): “…can come in the form of 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…”
• Pre-supernova outbursts via wave heating in massive stars – I. Red supergiants (2017, background): “…cases, pre-SN outbursts resulting in mass ejection have been observed directly, famous examples being SN 2009ip (which did not explode until 2012; Mauerhan et al. 2013; Graham et al. 2014; Margutti et al. 2014; Smith, Mauerhan & Prieto 2014), 2010mc (Ofek et al. 2013), LSQ13zm (Tartaglia et al.…”
• OBSERVING THE NEXT GALACTIC SUPERNOVA (2013, background): “Several SNe have now shown high luminosity (107 −108L ) eruptions in the years or months (Pastorello et al. 2007; Ofek et al. 2013; Mauerhan et al. 2013) preceding their explosions as SNe.”
• 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.”