Spectral Identification of an Ancient Supernova Using Light Echoes in the Large Magellanic Cloud

doi:10.1086/587158

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The Astrophysical Journal Volume 680 Number 2 Create an alert RSS this journal

A. Rest et al. 2008 ApJ 680 1137 doi:10.1086/587158

Spectral Identification of an Ancient Supernova Using Light Echoes in the Large Magellanic Cloud

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A. Rest^1,2,3, T. Matheson⁴, S. Blondin⁵, M. Bergmann⁶, D. L. Welch⁷, N. B. Suntzeff⁸, R. C. Smith¹, K. Olsen¹, J. L. Prieto⁹, A. Garg², P. Challis⁵, C. Stubbs^2,5, M. Hicken⁵, M. Modjaz⁵, W. M. Wood-Vasey⁵, A. Zenteno¹, G. Damke¹, A. Newman¹⁰, M. Huber¹¹, K. H. Cook¹¹, S. Nikolaev¹¹, A. C. Becker¹², A. Miceli¹², R. Covarrubias^12,13, L. Morelli¹⁴, G. Pignata^14,15, A. Clocchiatti¹⁴, D. Minniti¹⁴ and R. J. Foley¹⁶

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¹ Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), Colina el Pino S/N, La Serena, Chile
² Physics Department, Harvard University, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
³ Goldberg Fellow
⁴ National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719-4933
⁵ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
⁶ Gemini Observatory, Casilla 603, La Serena, Chile
⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1, Canada
⁸ Department of Physics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4242
⁹ Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210-1173
¹⁰ Department of Physics, Washington University, 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130
¹¹ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, CA 94550
¹² Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195
¹³ Las Campanas Observatory (OCIW), Colina El Pino, Casilla 601, La Serena, Chile
¹⁴ Department of Astronomy, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 306, Santiago 22, Chile
¹⁵ Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 36-D, Santiago, Chile
¹⁶ Department of Astronomy, University of California, 601 Campbell Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411

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Abstract References Cited By

We report the successful identification of the type of the supernova (SN) responsible for the supernova remnant SNR 0509–675 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) using Gemini spectra of surrounding light echoes. The ability to classify outbursts associated with centuries-old remnants provides a new window into several aspects of SN research and is likely to be successful in providing new constraints on additional LMC SNe, as well as their historical counterparts in the Milky Way (MW). The combined spectrum of echo light from SNR 0509–675 shows broad emission and absorption lines consistent with a SN spectrum. We create a spectral library consisting of 28 SNe Ia and 6 SNe Ib/c that are time-integrated, dust-scattered by LMC dust, and reddened by the LMC and MW. We fit these SN templates to the observed light echo spectrum using χ² minimization, as well as correlation techniques, and we find that overluminous 1991T-like SNe Ia with Δ m₁₅ < 0.9 match the observed spectrum best.

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