Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS
Volume 708, Issue 1, Pages L61-L65Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/708/1/L61
Keywords
supernovae: general; supernovae: individual (SN 2008ha)
Categories
Funding
- Clay Fellowship
- NSF [AST09-07903]
- US National Science Foundation on behalf of the Gemini partnership
- Science and Technology Facilities Council (United Kingdom)
- National Research Council (Canada)
- CONICYT (Chile)
- Australian Research Council (Australia)
- Ministerio da Ciencia e Tecnologia (Brazil)
- Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnologia e Innovacion Productiva (Argentina)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We present a new maximum-light optical spectrum of the extremely low luminosity and exceptionally low-energy Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) 2008ha, obtained one week before the earliest published spectrum. Previous observations of SN 2008ha were unable to distinguish between a massive star and white dwarf (WD) origin for the SN. The new maximum-light spectrum, obtained one week before the earliest previously published spectrum, unambiguously shows features corresponding to intermediate mass elements, including silicon, sulfur, and carbon. Although strong silicon features are seen in some core-collapse SNe, sulfur features, which are a signature of carbon/oxygen burning, have always been observed to be weak in such events. It is therefore likely that SN 2008ha was the result of a thermonuclear explosion of a carbon-oxygen WD. Carbon features at maximum light show that unburned material is present to significant depths in the SN ejecta, strengthening the case that SN 2008ha was a failed deflagration. We also present late-time imaging and spectroscopy that are consistent with this scenario.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available