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- Pastorello, A., et al.
(författare)
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A giant outburst two years before the core-collapse of a massive star
- 2007
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 447:7146, s. 829-832
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The death of massive stars produces a variety of supernovae, which are linked to the structure of the exploding stars(1,2). The detection of several precursor stars of type II supernovae has been reported ( see, for example, ref. 3), but we do not yet have direct information on the progenitors of the hydrogen-deficient type Ib and Ic supernovae. Here we report that the peculiar type Ib supernova SN 2006jc is spatially coincident with a bright optical transient(4) that occurred in 2004. Spectroscopic and photometric monitoring of the supernova leads us to suggest that the progenitor was a carbon-oxygen Wolf - Rayet star embedded within a helium-rich circumstellar medium. There are different possible explanations for this pre-explosion transient. It appears similar to the giant outbursts of luminous blue variable stars (LBVs) of 60 - 100 solar masses(5), but the progenitor of SN 2006jc was helium- and hydrogen-deficient ( unlike LBVs). An LBV-like outburst of a Wolf - Rayet star could be invoked, but this would be the first observational evidence of such a phenomenon. Alternatively, a massive binary system composed of an LBV that erupted in 2004, and a Wolf - Rayet star exploding as SN 2006jc, could explain the observations.
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