New Observational Constraints on the Mass-Loss History of SN 1987A

Details New Observational Constraints on the Mass-Loss History of SN 1987A New Observational Constraints on the Mass-Loss History of SN 1987A

Dec 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003aas...20312705s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society Meeting 203, #127.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 35, p.1414

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Surrounding SN 1987A is a three-ring nebula attributed to interacting stellar winds, yet no model has successfully reproduced this system. Fortunately, the supernova (SN) has provided an ideal opportunity to reconstruct the progenitor's mass-loss history through scattered-light echoes, which trace the three-dimensional (3-D) morphology of the circumstellar dust. Using PSF-matched difference imaging to study both phenomena, we have built the most complete map to date of the circumstellar environment (CSE).
The CSE is a richly-structured bipolar nebula. An outer, double-lobed ``peanut'' is a prolate shell extending 28 ly along the poles and 11 ly near the equator, but is pinched to 6 ly at the waist. Interior, a cylindrical hourglass, 1 ly in radius and 4 ly long, connects to the peanut by a thick equatorial disk. The nebulae are inclined 40° south and 8° east of the line of sight, slightly elliptical in cross section, and marginally offset west of the SN.
Echo fluxes suggest that between the hourglass and bipolar lobes: the gas density drops from 1--3 cm-3 to ≳ 0.03 cm-3; the maximum dust-grain size increases from ˜ 0.2\micron to 2\micron; and the silicate:carbonaceous dust ratio decreases. The nebulae have a total mass of ˜ 1.7 M&sun; , suggesting a red-supergiant mass loss of 5×10-6 M&sun; yr-1.
We compare these results to current formation models, and propose the progenitor evolved through two ``blue-loops,'' during which a fast, low-density blue supergiant wind interacted with previously-ejected, slow, high-density red supergiant material. We study the 3-D geometry of the three rings, suggesting the northern and southern rings are located 1.3 and 1.0 ly from the SN, while the equatorial ring is elliptical (b/a≲ 0.98), and spatially offset in the same direction as the hourglass.

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