The Type II-plateau Supernova 2017eaw in NGC 6946 and Its Red Supergiant Progenitor

Van Dyk, Schuyler D.; Zheng, WeiKang; Maund, Justyn R.; Brink, Thomas G.; Srinivasan, Sundar; Andrews, Jennifer E.; Smith, Nathan; Leonard, Douglas C.; Morozova, Viktoriya; Filippenko, Alexei V.; Conner, Brody; Milisavljevic, Dan; de Jaeger, Thomas; Long, Knox S.; Isaacson, Howard; Crossfield, Ian J. M.; Kosiarek, Molly R.; Howard, Andrew W.; Fox, Ori D.; Kelly, Patrick L.; Piro, Anthony L.; Littlefair, Stuart P.; Dhillon, Vik S.; Wilson, Richard; Butterley, Timothy; Yunus, Sameen; Channa, Sanyum; Jeffers, Benjamin T.; Falcon, Edward; Ross, Timothy W.; Hestenes, Julia C.; Stegman, Samantha M.; Zhang, Keto; Kumar, Sahana
Bibliographical reference

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 875, Issue 2, article id. 136, 23 pp. (2019).

Advertised on:
4
2019
Number of authors
34
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
58
Refereed citations
56
Description
We present extensive optical photometric and spectroscopic observations, from 4 to 482 days after explosion, of the Type II-plateau (II-P) supernova (SN) 2017eaw in NGC 6946. SN 2017eaw is a normal SN II-P intermediate in properties between, for example, SN 1999em and SN 2012aw and the more luminous SN 2004et, also in NGC 6946. We have determined that the extinction to SN 2017eaw is primarily due to the Galactic foreground and that the SN site metallicity is likely subsolar. We have also independently confirmed a tip-of-the-red-giant-branch (TRGB) distance to NGC 6946 of 7.73 ± 0.78 Mpc. The distances to the SN that we have also estimated via both the standardized candle method and expanding photosphere method corroborate the TRGB distance. We confirm the SN progenitor identity in pre-explosion archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Spitzer Space Telescope images, via imaging of the SN through our HST Target of Opportunity program. Detailed modeling of the progenitor’s spectral energy distribution indicates that the star was a dusty, luminous red supergiant consistent with an initial mass of ∼15 M ⊙.
Related projects
Black hole in outburst
Black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs and their local environment

Accreting black-holes and neutron stars in X-ray binaries provide an ideal laboratory for exploring the physics of compact objects, yielding not only confirmation of the existence of stellar mass black holes via dynamical mass measurements, but also the best opportunity for probing high-gravity environments and the physics of accretion; the most

Montserrat
Armas Padilla