Abstract
We present preexplosion optical and infrared (IR) imaging at the site of the type II supernova (SN II) 2023ixf in Messier 101 at 6.9 Mpc. We astrometrically registered a ground-based image of SN 2023ixf to archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Spitzer Space Telescope (Spitzer), and ground-based near-IR images. A single point source is detected at a position consistent with the SN at wavelengths ranging from HST R band to Spitzer 4.5 μm. Fitting with blackbody and red supergiant (RSG) spectral energy distributions (SEDs), we find that the source is anomalously cool with a significant mid-IR excess. We interpret this SED as reprocessed emission in a 8600 R ⊙ circumstellar shell of dusty material with a mass ∼5 × 10−5 M ⊙ surrounding a log ( L / L ⊙ ) = 4.74 ± 0.07 and T eff = 3920 − 160 + 200 K RSG. This luminosity is consistent with RSG models of initial mass 11 M ⊙, depending on assumptions of rotation and overshooting. In addition, the counterpart was significantly variable in preexplosion Spitzer 3.6 and 4.5 μm imaging, exhibiting ∼70% variability in both bands correlated across 9 yr and 29 epochs of imaging. The variations appear to have a timescale of 2.8 yr, which is consistent with κ-mechanism pulsations observed in RSGs, albeit with a much larger amplitude than RSGs such as α Orionis (Betelgeuse).
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | L23 |
Journal | Astrophysical Journal Letters |
Volume | 952 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 1 2023 |
Funding
YSE-PZ (Coulter et al. ) was developed by the UC Santa Cruz Transients Team with support from NASA grants NNG17PX03C, 80NSSC19K1386, and 80NSSC20K0953; NSF grants AST-1518052, AST-1815935, and AST-1911206; the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; a fellowship from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to R.J.F.; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation postdoctoral fellowships and a NASA Einstein fellowship, as administered through the NASA Hubble Fellowship program, and grant HST-HF2-51462.001 to D.O.J.; and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, administered through grant No. DGE-1339067, to D.A.C. This research is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtained from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 526555. These observations are associated with programs 6829 (PI: Chu), 9490 (PI: Kuntz), 9720 (PI: Chandar), and 13361 (PI: Blair). This work is based in part on archival data obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which was operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. Support for this work was provided by an award issued by JPL/Caltech. Based on observations obtained at the international Gemini Observatory, a program of NSFs NOIRLab, which is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation on behalf of the Gemini Observatory partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), National Research Council (Canada), Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (Chile), Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (Argentina), Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovaçőes e Comunicaçőes (Brazil), and Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (Republic of Korea). This work was enabled by observations made from the Gemini-North telescope, located within the Maunakea Science Reserve and adjacent to the summit of Maunakea. We are grateful for the privilege of observing the Universe from a place that is unique in both its astronomical quality and its cultural significance. C.D.K. is partly supported by a CIERA postdoctoral fellowship and acknowledges support from a NASA grant for HST-GO-16136. M.R.D. acknowledges support from the NSERC through grant RGPIN-2019-06186, the Canada Research Chairs Program, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), and the Dunlap Institute at the University of Toronto. A.G. is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under grant No. DGE1746047. A.G. also acknowledges funding from the Center for Astrophysical Surveys Fellowship at UIUC/NCSA and the Illinois Distinguished Fellowship. K.S.M. acknowledges funding from the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under ERC Grant Agreement No. 101002652 and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 873089. C.G. is supported by a VILLUM FONDEN Young Investigator Grant (project number 25501). J.H. was supported by a VILLUM FONDEN Investigator grant (project number 16599). S.J.S. acknowledges funding from STFC grants ST/X006506/1 and ST/T000198/1. The Young Supernova Experiment (YSE) and its research infrastructure is supported by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (ERC Grant Agreement 101002652, PI: K. Mandel), the Heising-Simons Foundation (2018-0913, PI: R. Foley; 2018-0911, PI: R. Margutti), NASA (NNG17PX03C, PI: R. Foley), NSF (AST-1720756 and AST-1815935, PI: R. Foley; AST-1909796 and AST-1944985, PI: R. Margutti), the David & Lucille Packard Foundation (PI: R. Foley), VILLUM FONDEN (project 16599, PI: J. Hjorth), and the Center for AstroPhysical Surveys (CAPS) at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The Pan-STARRS1 Surveys (PS1) and the PS1 public science archive have been made possible through contributions by the Institute for Astronomy, the University of Hawaii, the Pan-STARRS Project Office, the Max-Planck Society and its participating institutes, the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, The Johns Hopkins University, Durham University, the University of Edinburgh, the Queen’s University Belfast, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network Incorporated, the National Central University of Taiwan, STScI, NASA under grant NNX08AR22G issued through the Planetary Science Division of the NASA Science Mission Directorate, NSF grant AST-1238877, the University of Maryland, Eotvos Lorand University (ELTE), the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The UCSC team is supported in part by NASA grants NNG17PX03C and 80NSSC22K1518, NSF grant AST-1815935, the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and by a fellowship from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to R.J.F.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Space and Planetary Science