Journal
ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL
Volume 140, Issue 5, Pages 1321-1328Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-6256/140/5/1321
Keywords
astrometry; stars: evolution; supernovae: general; supernovae: individual (SN 2008ge)
Categories
Funding
- Clay Fellowship
- Proyecto FONDECYT [11090421]
- Comite eMixto ESO-Gobierno de Chile
- Millennium Center [P06-045-F]
- Programa Bicentenario de Ciencia y Tecnologia de CONICYT
- Programa Iniciativa Cientifica Milenio de MIDEPLAN
- Centro de Astrofisica FONDAP [15010003]
- Fondecyt [1060808]
- Center of Excellence in Astrophysics and Associated Technologies (PFB 06)
- National Science Foundation (NSF) [AST-0306969]
- Danish NSF
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We present observations of supernova (SN) 2008ge, which is spectroscopically similar to the peculiar SN 2002cx, and its pre-explosion site indicating that its progenitor was probably a white dwarf. NGC 1527, the host galaxy of SN 2008ge, is an S0 galaxy with no evidence of star formation or massive stars. Astrometrically matching late-time imaging of SN 2008ge to pre-explosion Hubble Space Telescope imaging, we constrain the luminosity of the progenitor star. Since SN 2008ge has no indication of hydrogen or helium in its spectrum, its progenitor must have lost its outer layers before exploding, meaning that it is a white dwarf, a Wolf-Rayet star, or a lower-mass star in a binary system. Observations of the host galaxy show no signs of individual massive stars, star clusters, or H (II) regions at the SN position or anywhere else, making a Wolf-Rayet progenitor unlikely. Late-time spectroscopy of SN 2008ge shows strong [Fe (II)] lines with large velocity widths compared to other members of this class at similar epochs. These previously unseen features indicate that a significant amount of the SN ejecta is Fe (presumably the result of the radioactive decay of Ni-56 generated in the SN), further supporting a thermonuclear explosion. Placing the observations of SN 2008ge in the context of observations of other objects in the same class of SNe, we suggest that the progenitor was most likely a white dwarf.
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