Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Matsuura, M
• Dwek, E
• Barlow, M J
• Babler, B
• Baes, M
• Meixner, M
• Cernicharo, Jose
• Clayton, Geoff C
• Dunne, L
• Fransson, C

Titel

A STUBBORNLY LARGE MASS OF COLD DUST IN THE EJECTA OF SUPERNOVA 1987A

Ist Teil von

• Astrophysical journal. Letters, 2015-02, Vol.800 (1), p.1-8

Ort / Verlag

United States: Bristol : IOP Publishing

Erscheinungsjahr

2015

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• We present new Herschel photometric and spectroscopic observations of Supernova 1987A, carried out in 2012. Our dedicated photometric measurements provide new 70 mu m data and improved imaging quality at 100 and 160 mu m compared to previous observations in 2010. Our Herschel spectra show only weak CO line emission, and provide an upper limit for the 63 mu m [OI] line flux, eliminating the possibility that line contaminations distort the previously estimated dust mass. The far-infrared spectral energy distribution (SED) is well fitted by thermal emission from cold dust. The newly measured 70 mu m flux constrains the dust temperature, limiting it to nearly a single temperature. The far-infrared emission can be fitted by 0.5 + or - 0.1 M sub([middot in circle]) of amorphous carbon, about a factor of two larger than the current nucleosynthetic mass prediction for carbon. The observation of SiO molecules at early and late phases suggests that silicates may also have formed and we could fit the SED with a combination of 0.3 M sub([middot in circle]) of amorphous carbon and 0.5 M sub([middot in circle]) of silicates, totalling 0.8 M sub([middot in circle]) of dust. Our analysis thus supports the presence of a large dust reservoir in the ejecta of SN 1987A. The inferred dust mass suggests that supernovae can be an important source of dust in the interstellar medium, from local to high-redshift galaxies.