SN 2008ha: AN EXTREMELY LOW LUMINOSITY AND EXCEPTIONALLY LOW ENERGY SUPERNOVA

By Ryan J. Foley, Ryan Chornock, A. Filippenko, M. Ganeshalingam, R. Kirshner, Weidong Li, S. B. Cenko, P. Challis, A. Friedman, Maryam Modjaz and 2 more. 2009

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We present ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared photometry as well as optical spectra of the peculiar supernova (SN) 2008ha. SN 2008ha had a very low peak luminosity, reaching only MV = −14.2 mag, and low line velocities of only ∼2000 km s−1 near maximum brightness, indicating a very small kinetic energy per unit mass of ejecta. Spectroscopically, SN 2008ha is a member of the SN 2002cx-like class of SNe, a peculiar subclass of SNe Ia; however, SN 2008ha is the most extreme member, being significantly fainter and having lower line velocities than the typical member, which is already ∼2 mag fainter and has line velocities ∼5000 km s−1 smaller (near maximum brightness) than a normal SN Ia. SN 2008ha had a remarkably short rise time of only ∼10 days, significantly shorter than either SN 2002cx-like objects (∼15 days) or normal SNe Ia (∼19.5 days). The bolometric light curve of SN 2008ha indicates that SN 2008ha peaked at Lpeak = (9.5 ± 1.4) × 1040 erg s−1, making SN 2008ha perhaps the least luminous SN ever observed. From its peak luminosity and rise time, we infer that SN 2008ha generated (3.0 ± 0.9) × 10−3M☉ of 56Ni, had a kinetic energy of ∼2 × 1048 erg, and ejected 0.15 M☉ of material. The host galaxy of SN 2008ha has a luminosity, star formation rate, and metallicity similar to those of the Large magellanic Cloud. We classify three new (and one potential) members of the SN 2002cx-like class, expanding the sample to 14 (and one potential) members. The host-galaxy morphology distribution of the class is consistent with that of SNe Ia, Ib, Ic, and II. Several models for generating low-luminosity SNe can explain the observations of SN 2008ha; however, if a single model is to describe all SN 2002cx-like objects, deflagration of carbon–oxygen white dwarfs, with SN 2008ha being a partial deflagration and not unbinding the progenitor star, is preferred. The rate of SN 2008ha-like events is ∼10% of the SN Ia rate, and in the upcoming era of transient surveys, several thousand similar objects may be discovered, suggesting that SN 2008ha may be the tip of a low-luminosity transient iceberg.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f1393bb89bbe61be8cc1eadeccce73d1e1cc555c

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. E. Berger
2. S. Smartt
3. B. Metzger
4. A. Filippenko
5. N. Smith
6. D. Kasen
7. Stan Woosley
8. Ryan Chornock

Citations in the corpus

• A CONTINUUM OF H- TO He-RICH TIDAL DISRUPTION CANDIDATES WITH A PREFERENCE FOR E+A GALAXIES (2014, background): “Discoveries of new types of transients (e.g. van Dyk et al. 2000; Valenti et al. 2009; Foley et al. 2009; Perets et al. 2010; Kasliwal et al. 2011) have been filling the luminosity gap between novae and SNe.”
• An Embedded X-Ray Source Shines through the Aspherical AT 2018cow: Revealing the Inner Workings of the Most Luminous Fast-evolving Optical Transients (2018, background): “Some are less luminous than normal H-stripped core-collapse supernovae (i.e., SNe Ibc; e.g., SN 2005E, Perets et al. 2010; SN 2008 ha, Foley et al. 2009; Valenti et al. 2009) or populate the low end of the luminosity function of SNe Ibc (e.g., SNe 2005ek, 2010X; Kasliwal et al. 2010; Drout et al.…”
• Low luminosity Type II supernovae - II. Pointing towards moderate mass precursors (2014, background): “These new discoveries include a number of faint, 56Ni-poor, low expansion velocity hydrogen free SNe (e.g. SN 2008ha; Valenti et al. 2009; Foley et al. 2009), some ultrafaint objects with Type IIn SN-like spectra and shape of the light curves resembling those of Type IIL or Type IIP SNe (NGC300…”
• Three-dimensional pure deflagration models with nucleosynthesis and synthetic observables for type ia supernovae (2013, background): “Foley et al. (2009, 2010), for example, suggested deflagrations of helium-accreting subChandrasekhar-mass WDs, while Valenti et al. (2009) and Moriya et al. (2010) favoured a core-collapse origin.”
• Nearby Supernova Rates from the Lick Observatory Supernova Search. II. The Observed Luminosity Functions and Fractions of Supernovae in a Complete Sample (2010, background): “…belong to the socalled “SN 2002cx-like objects” (Filippenko 2003; Li et al. 2003b; Jha et al. 2006b; Phillips et al. 2007), which show distinct differences from the rest of the SN Ia family3 Recently, their SN Ia nature has been questioned (Valenti et al. 2009; but see Foley et al. 2009b, 2010a).”
• Nucleosynthesis in Stars and the Chemical Enrichment of Galaxies (2013, background): “Another candidate fallback supernova is the peculiar SN 2008ha (Valenti et al. 2009, Foley et al. 2009), which is very faint and whose explosion energy is estimated to be very small.”
• 3D deflagration simulations leaving bound remnants: a model for 2002cx-like Type Ia supernovae (2012, background): “With an observationally derived 56Ni mass of 0.003 M for SN 2008ha (Foley et al. 2009), however, this object cannot easily be explained in our model of a deflagration of a Chandrasekhar-mass WD.”
• COSMOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS FROM MEASUREMENTS OF TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE DISCOVERED DURING THE FIRST 1.5 yr OF THE Pan-STARRS1 SURVEY (2013, methodology): “…by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF). standards (Wade & Horne 1988; Foley et al. 2003, 2009a; Silverman et al. 2012a).”
• On the Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae (2018, unknown): “They do not obey the Phillips relation (e.g., Foley et al. 2009; Phillips et al. 2007).”
• The death of massive stars – I. Observational constraints on the progenitors of Type II-P supernovae (2008, background): “…al. (2009) suggested that the SN was the faint core-collapse of a massive progenitor on the basis of its spectral similarity to SN 2005cs; however, Foley et al. (2009, 2010b) have questioned this interpretation and proposed that it was in fact a thermonuclear SN. Foley et al. argue that…”
• TYPE Iax SUPERNOVAE: A NEW CLASS OF STELLAR EXPLOSION (2012, methodology): “Although its maximum-light spectrum indicates that the object underwent C/O burning (Foley et al. 2010a), certain observations are consistent with a massive-star progenitor (Foley et al. 2009; Valenti et al. 2009; Moriya et al. 2010).”
• Nearby supernova rates from the Lick Observatory Supernova Search – I. The methods and data base (2010, background): “…SNe Ia. Analysis of a spectrum (A. Gal-Yam 2009, private communication; also illustrated by Rajala et al. 2005) indicates that SN 2004cs is similar to SN 2007J, which may have been a peculiar SN Ibc (Filippenko et al. 2007) or perhaps related to a certain odd subclass of SNe Ia (Foley et al. 2009).”
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• SUB-CHANDRASEKHAR MASS MODELS FOR SUPERNOVAE (2010, background): “We suggest that the scenario may be relevant for explaining the class of dim transients showing low velocities in their spectra (e.g., SN 2008ha; Foley et al. 2009).”
• Super and massive AGB stars - IV. Final fates - Initial to final mass relation (2014, background): “For example the “supernova impostors” of SN2008ha, SN2008S and NGC300-OT (Foley et al. 2009; Valenti et al. 2009), and the crab nebula progenitor (Davidson et al. 1982; Nomoto et al. 1982; Smith 2013; Tominaga et al. 2013; Moriya et al. 2014).”
• Berkeley Supernova Ia Program – I. Observations, data reduction and spectroscopic sample of 582 low-redshift Type Ia supernovae (2012, methodology): “The main differences between our SNID-determined 14 Foley et al. (2009b), after correcting for various biases, expected only 1–4 91bg-like objects based on the Li et al. (2001) percentages. c© 2012 RAS, MNRAS 000, 1–34 Table 10.”
• SUPERNOVA LIGHT CURVES POWERED BY FALLBACK ACCRETION (2012, background): “Conversely, lower efficiencies could help explain a wider variety of sub-luminous supernovae (e.g., SN 2008ha, Foley et al. 2009).”