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Abstract When the ejecta of a supernova (SN) interact with the progenitor star's circumstellar environment, a strong shock is driven back into the ejecta, causing the material to become bright optically and in X-rays. Most notably, as the shock traverses the H-rich envelope, it begins to interact with metal-rich material. Thus, continued monitoring of bright and nearby SNe provides valuable clues about both the progenitor structure and its pre-SN evolution. Here we present late-time, multiepoch optical and Chandra X-ray spectra of the core-collapse SN, SN 1996cr. Magellan IMACS optical spectra taken in 2017 July and 2021 August show a very different spectrum from that seen in 2006 with broad, double-peaked optical emission lines of oxygen, argon, and sulfur with expansion velocities of ±4500 km s−1. Redshifted emission components are considerably fainter compared to the blueshifted components, presumably due to internal extinction from dust in the SN ejecta. Broad ±2400 km s−1Hαis also seen, which we infer is shocked progenitor pre-SN, mass-loss, H-rich material. Chandra data indicate a slow but steady decline in the overall X-ray luminosity, suggesting that the forward shock has broken through any circumstellar shell or torus, which is inferred from prior deep Chandra ACIS-S/HETG observations. The X-ray properties are consistent with what is expected from a shock breaking out into a lower-density environment. Though originally identified as a Type IIn SN, based upon late-time optical emission-line spectra, we argue that the SN 1996cr progenitor was partially or highly stripped, suggesting a Type IIb/Ib SN.
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This content will become publicly available on September 23, 2026
Very Late-time JWST and Keck Spectra of the Oxygen-rich Supernova 1995N
Abstract We present new JWST/MIRI Medium Resolution Spectroscopy and Keck spectra of SN 1995N obtained in 2022–2023, more than 10,000 days after the supernova (SN) explosion. These spectra are among the latest direct detections of a core-collapse SN, both through emission lines in the optical and thermal continuum from infrared (IR) dust emission. The new IR data show that dust heating from radiation produced by the ejecta interacting with circumstellar matter is still present but greatly reduced from when SN 1995N was observed by the Spitzer Space Telescope and WISE in 2009/2010 and 2018, when the dust mass was estimated to be 0.4M⊙. New radiative-transfer modeling suggests that the dust mass and grain size may have increased between 2010 and 2023. The new data can alternatively be well fit with a dust mass of 0.4M⊙and a much reduced heating source luminosity. The new late-time spectra show unusually strong oxygen forbidden lines, stronger than the Hαemission. This indicates that SN 1995N may have exploded as a stripped-envelope SN, which then interacted with a massive H-rich circumstellar shell, changing it from intrinsically Type Ib/c to Type IIn. The late-time spectrum results when the reverse shock begins to excite the inner H-poor, O-rich ejecta. This change in the spectrum is rarely seen but marks the start of the transition from SN to SN remnant.
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- PAR ID:
- 10655928
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Publisher / Repository:
- IOP
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Volume:
- 991
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0004-637X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 133
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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