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| PRI (MPIfR) 05/2009 (3) | Press Release | May 27, 2009 |
An international team of radio astronomers have discovered the secret explosion
of a massive star, a new supernova, in the nearby galaxy M82. Despite being the
closest supernovae discovered in the last five years, the explosion is
exclusively detectable at radio wavelengths since the dense gas and dust
surrounding the exploding star leave it invisible in other wavebands. Without
the obscuration, this explosion would have been visible even with amateur
telescopes. The results are published in this week's release of Astronomy &
Astrophysics Letters.
Figure 1:
Zooming into the center of the galaxy M82, one of the nearest starburst
galaxies at a distance of only 12 Million light years. The left image, taken
with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), shows the body of the galaxy in blue and
hydrogen gas breaking out from the central starburst in red. The VLA image
(top left) clearly shows the supernova (SN 2008iz), taken in May 2008. The high-resolution VLBI images (lower right) shows an expanding shell at the scale of a few light days and proves the transient source as the result of a supernova explosion in M82.
Graphics: Milde Science Communication, HST Image: /NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Radio Images: A. Brunthaler, MPIfR.
(Click image for higher resolution).
The new discovery was first made in April 2009 when the MPIfR's Dr. Andreas Brunthaler examined data just taken (on April 8) with the Very Large Array (VLA) of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, an interferometer of 27 identical 25 meter telescopes in New Mexico, USA. "I then looked back into older data we had from March and May last year, and there it was as well, outshining the entire galaxy!", he says (see Fig 1, top). Observations taken before 2008 showed neither pronounced radio nor X-ray emission at the position of this supernova.
On the other hand, observations of M82 taken last year with optical telescopes to search for new supernovae showed no signs of this explosion. Furthermore, the supernova is hidden on ultraviolet and X-ray images. The supernova exploded close to the center of the galaxy in a very dense interstellar environment. This could also reveal the mystery about the long silence of M82: many of these events may actually be something like "underground explosions", where the bright flash of light is covered under huge clouds of gas and dust and only radio waves can penetrate this dense material. "This cosmic catastrophe shows that using our radio telescopes we have a front-row seat to observe the otherwise hidden universe", Prof. Heino Falcke from Radboud University/Nijmegen & ASTRON explains. If not obscured, the explosion could have been visible even in a medium-sized amateur telescope.
Radio emission can be detected only from core collapse supernovae, where the core of a massive star collapses and produces a black hole or a neutron star. It is produced when the shock wave of the explosion propagates into dense material surrounding the star, usually material that was shed from the massive progenitor star before it exploded.
By combining data from the ten telescopes of the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), the VLA, the Green Bank Telescope in the USA, and the Effelsberg 100m telescope in Germany, using the technique of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), the team was able to produce images that show a ring-like structure expanding at more than 40 million km/h or 4% of the speed of light, typical for supernovae. "By extrapolating this expansion back in time, we can estimate the explosion date. Our current data indicate that the star exploded in late January or early February 2008.", explains Dr. Andreas Brunthaler.
Only three months after the explosion, the ring was already 650 times larger than Earth's orbit around the Sun (Fig 1, right). It takes the extremely sharp view of VLBI observations to resolve this structure which is as large as a 1 Euro coin seen from a distance of 13.000 km.
The asymmetric appearance of the supernova on the VLBI images indicates also that either the explosion was highly asymmetric or the surrounding material unevenly distributed. "Using the super sharp vision of VLBI we can follow the supernova expanding into the dense interstellar medium of M82 over the coming years and gain more insight on it and the explosion itself.", says Prof. Karl Menten, director at the MPIfR.
Discoveries like this supernova will be routine with the next generation of radio telescopes, such as the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) which is currently under construction in Europe, the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in the USA, or the planned Square Kilometer Array (SKA). These will have the capability to observe large parts of the sky continously.
Team members were Andreas Brunthaler, Karl M. Menten, Christian Henkel from the MPIfR, Mark J. Reid from the CfA, Geoffrey C. Bower from Berkeley, and Heino Falcke from the University of Nijmegen/ASTRON.
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Figure 2:
The Very Large Array (left) in New Mexico/USA was used for the initial
discovery of the new supernova 2008iz in the galaxy M82.
This telescope, together with the Effelsberg 100m telescope (center) and the
Green Bank Telescope (right) in West Virginia/USA,
complemented the high-resolution VLBA array for the observations of the
expanding shell of the supernova.
Images: NRAO, MPIfR Bonn
(Click for higher resolution).
Discovery of a bright radio transient in M82:
a new radio supernova?,
A. Brunthaler, K.M. Menten, M.J. Reid, C. Henkel, G.C. Bower, H. Falcke,
Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2009, Vol. 499, L17 (May 28 issue).
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) and its Millimeter and Submillimeter Astronomy research group.
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).
Berkeley Astronomy Department University of California.
Astrophysics Department, Radboud University Nijmegen & ASTRON.
Very Large Array (VLA).
Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA).
Green Bank Telescope (GBT, Robert C. Byrd Telescope).
Dr. Andreas Brunthaler,
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn.
Fon: +49-228-525-377
E-mail: brunthal (at)
mpifr.de
Prof. Dr. Karl Menten,
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn.
Fon: +49-228-525-297
E-mail: kmenten (at)
mpifr.de
Dr. Norbert Junkes,
Public Outreach,
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn.
Fon: +49-228-525-399
E-mail: njunkes (at)
mpifr.de