No Arabic abstract
Supernova (SN) explosions are crucial engines driving the evolution of galaxies by shock heating gas, increasing the metallicity, creating dust, and accelerating energetic particles. In 2012 we used the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array to observe SN 1987A, one of the best-observed supernovae since the invention of the telescope. We present spatially resolved images at 450um, 870um, 1.4mm, and 2.8mm, an important transition wavelength range. Longer wavelength emission is dominated by synchrotron radiation from shock-accelerated particles, shorter wavelengths by emission from the largest mass of dust measured in a supernova remnant (>0.2Msun). For the first time we show unambiguously that this dust has formed in the inner ejecta (the cold remnants of the exploded stars core). The dust emission is concentrated to the center of the remnant, so the dust has not yet been affected by the shocks. If a significant fraction survives, and if SN 1987A is typical, supernovae are important cosmological dust producers.
We report on updated radio imaging observations of the radio remnant of Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A) at 9 GHz, taken with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), covering a 25-year period (1992-2017). We use Fourier modeling of the supernova remnant to model its morphology, using both a torus model and a ring model, and find both models show an increasing flux density, and have shown a continuing expansion of the remnant. As found in previous studies, we find the torus model most accurately fits our data, and has shown a change in the remnant expansion at Day 9,300 $pm$210 from 2,300 $pm$200 km/s to 3,610 $pm$240 km/s. We have also seen an increase in brightness in the western lobe of the remnant, although the eastern lobe is still the dominant source of emission, unlike what has been observed at contemporary optical and X-ray wavelengths. We expect to observe a reversal in this asymmetry by the year $sim$2020, and note the south-eastern side of the remnant is now beginning to fade, as has also been seen in optical and X-ray data. Our data indicate that high-latitude emission has been present in the remnant from the earliest stages of the shockwave interacting with the equatorial ring around Day 5,000. However, we find the emission has become increasingly dominated by the low-lying regions by Day 9,300, overlapping with the regions of X-ray emission. We conclude that the shockwave is now leaving the equatorial ring, exiting first from the south-east region of the remnant, and is re-accelerating as it begins to interact with the circumstellar medium beyond the dense inner ring.
Supernova (SN) 2014C is a unique explosion where a seemingly typical hydrogen-poor stripped envelope SN started to interact with a dense, hydrogen-rich circumstellar medium (CSM) a few months after the explosion. The delayed interaction suggests a detached CSM shell, unlike in a typical SN IIn where the CSM is much closer and the interaction commences earlier post-explosion; indicating a different mass loss history. We present near- to mid-infrared observations of SN 2014C from 1-5 years after the explosion, including uncommon 9.7 $mu$m imaging with COMICS on the Subaru telescope. Spectroscopy shows that the interaction is still ongoing, with the intermediate-width He I 1.083 $mu$m emission present out to our latest epoch 1639 days post-explosion. The last Spitzer/IRAC photometry at 1920 days post-explosion further confirms ongoing CSM interaction. The 1-10 $mu$m spectral energy distributions (SEDs) can be explained by a dust model with a mixture of 69% carbonaceous and 31% silicate dust, pointing to a chemically inhomogeneous CSM. The inference of silicate dust is the first among interacting SNe. An SED model with purely carbonaceous CSM dust is possible, but would require more than 0.22 $M_{odot}$ of dust, which is an order of magnitude larger than what observed in any other SNe, measured in the same way, at this epoch. The light curve beyond 500 days is well fit by an interaction model with a wind-driven CSM and a mass loss rate of $sim 10^{-3} , M_{odot},rm yr^{-1}$, which presents an additional CSM density component exterior to the constant density shell reported previously in the literature. SN 2014C could originate in a binary system, similar to RY Scuti, which would explain the observed chemical and density profile inhomogeneity in the CSM.
The combination of high resolution and sensitivity offered by ALMA is revolutionizing our understanding of protoplanetary discs, as their bulk gas and dust distributions can be studied independently. In this paper we present resolved ALMA observations of the continuum emission ($lambda=1.3$ mm) and CO isotopologues ($^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, C$^{18}$O $J=2-1$) integrated intensity from the disc around the nearby ($d = 162$ pc), intermediate mass ($M_{star}=1.67,M_{odot}$) pre-main-sequence star CQ Tau. The data show an inner depression in continuum, and in both $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O emission. We employ a thermo-chemical model of the disc reproducing both continuum and gas radial intensity profiles, together with the disc SED. The models show that a gas inner cavity with size between 15 and 25 au is needed to reproduce the data with a density depletion factor between $sim 10^{-1}$ and $sim 10^{-3}$. The radial profile of the distinct cavity in the dust continuum is described by a Gaussian ring centered at $R_{rm dust}=53,$au and with a width of $sigma=13,$au. Three dimensional gas and dust numerical simulations of a disc with an embedded planet at a separation from the central star of $sim20,$au and with a mass of $sim 6textrm{-} 9,M_{rm Jup}$ reproduce qualitatively the gas and dust profiles of the CQ Tau disc. However, a one planet model appears not to be able to reproduce the dust Gaussian density profile predicted using the thermo-chemical modeling.
We report far-infrared and submillimeter observations of Supernova 1987A, the star that exploded on February 23, 1987 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy located 160,000 lightyears away. The observations reveal the presence of a population of cold dust grains radiating with a temperature of ~17-23 K at a rate of about 220 solar luminosity. The intensity and spectral energy distribution of the emission suggests a dust mass of ~0.4-0.7 solar mass. The radiation must originate from the SN ejecta and requires the efficient precipitation of all refractory material into dust. Our observations imply that supernovae can produce the large dust masses detected in young galaxies at very high redshifts.
We report the first molecular line survey of Supernova 1987A in the millimetre wavelength range. In the ALMA 210--300 and 340--360 GHz spectra, we detected cold (20--170 K) CO, 28SiO, HCO+ and SO, with weaker lines of 29SiO from ejecta. This is the first identification of HCO+ and SO in a young supernova remnant. We find a dip in the J=6--5 and 5--4 SiO line profiles, suggesting that the ejecta morphology is likely elongated. The difference of the CO and SiO line profiles is consistent with hydrodynamic simulations, which show that Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities cause mixing of gas, with heavier elements much more disturbed, making more elongated structure. We obtained isotopologue ratios of 28SiO/29SiO>13, 28SiO/30SiO>14, and 12CO/13CO>21, with the most likely limits of 28SiO/29SiO>128, 28SiO/30SiO>189. Low 29Si and 30Si abundances in SN 1987A are consistent with nucleosynthesis models that show inefficient formation of neutron-rich isotopes in a low metallicity environment, such as the Large Magellanic Cloud. The deduced large mass of HCO+ (~5x10^-6 Msun) and small SiS mass (<6x10^-5 Msun) might be explained by some mixing of elements immediately after the explosion. The mixing might have caused some hydrogen from the envelope to sink into carbon and oxygen-rich zones after the explosion, enabling the formation of a substantial mass of HCO+. Oxygen atoms may have penetrated into silicon and sulphur zones, suppressing formation of SiS. Our ALMA observations open up a new window to investigate chemistry, dynamics and explosive-nucleosynthesis in supernovae.