A WC/WO star exploding within an expanding carbon-oxygen-neon nebula

A Gal-Yam¹, R Bruch², S Schulze^{2

3}, Y Yang^{2

4}, D A Perley⁵, I Irani², J Sollerman³, E C Kool³, M T Soumagnac^{2

6}, O Yaron², N L Strotjohann², E Zimmerman², C Barbarino³, S R Kulkarni⁷, M M Kasliwal⁷, K De⁷, Y Yao⁷, C Fremling⁷, L Yan⁷, E O Ofek², C Fransson³, A V Filippenko^{4

8}, W Zheng⁴, T G Brink⁴, C M Copperwheat⁵, R J Foley⁹, J Brown⁹, M Siebert⁹, G Leloudas¹⁰, A L Cabrera-Lavers¹¹, D Garcia-Alvarez¹¹, A Marante-Barreto¹¹, S Frederick¹², T Hung⁹, J C Wheeler¹³, J Vinkó^{13

14

15

16}, B P Thomas¹³, M J Graham⁷, D A Duev⁷, A J Drake⁷, R Dekany⁷, E C Bellm¹⁷, B Rusholme¹⁸, D L Shupe¹⁸, I Andreoni⁷, Y Sharma⁷, R Riddle⁷, J van Roestel⁷, N Knezevic¹⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel. avishay.gal-yam@weizmann.ac.il.
² Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
³ The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy and Department of Physics, AlbaNova, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁴ Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁵ Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
⁶ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁷ Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
⁸ Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁹ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
¹⁰ DTU Space, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
¹¹ Grantecan, Centro de Astrofísica de La Palma, La Palma, Spain.
¹² Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
¹³ Department of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
¹⁴ Konkoly Observatory, ELKH CSFK, Budapest, Hungary.
¹⁵ Department of Optics and Quantum Electronics, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary.
¹⁶ ELTE Institute of Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
¹⁷ DIRAC Institute, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
¹⁸ IPAC, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Astronomy, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.

PMID: 35022591
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04155-1

A WC/WO star exploding within an expanding carbon-oxygen-neon nebula

A Gal-Yam et al. Nature. 2022 Jan.

. 2022 Jan;601(7892):201-204.

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04155-1. Epub 2022 Jan 12.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel. avishay.gal-yam@weizmann.ac.il.
² Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
³ The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy and Department of Physics, AlbaNova, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁴ Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁵ Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
⁶ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁷ Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
⁸ Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁹ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
¹⁰ DTU Space, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
¹¹ Grantecan, Centro de Astrofísica de La Palma, La Palma, Spain.
¹² Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
¹³ Department of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
¹⁴ Konkoly Observatory, ELKH CSFK, Budapest, Hungary.
¹⁵ Department of Optics and Quantum Electronics, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary.
¹⁶ ELTE Institute of Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
¹⁷ DIRAC Institute, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
¹⁸ IPAC, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Astronomy, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.

PMID: 35022591
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04155-1

Abstract

The final fate of massive stars, and the nature of the compact remnants they leave behind (black holes and neutron stars), are open questions in astrophysics. Many massive stars are stripped of their outer hydrogen envelopes as they evolve. Such Wolf-Rayet stars¹ emit strong and rapidly expanding winds with speeds greater than 1,000 kilometres per second. A fraction of this population is also helium-depleted, with spectra dominated by highly ionized emission lines of carbon and oxygen (types WC/WO). Evidence indicates that the most commonly observed supernova explosions that lack hydrogen and helium (types Ib/Ic) cannot result from massive WC/WO stars^2,3, leading some to suggest that most such stars collapse directly into black holes without a visible supernova explosion⁴. Here we report observations of SN 2019hgp, beginning about a day after the explosion. Its short rise time and rapid decline place it among an emerging population of rapidly evolving transients^5-8. Spectroscopy reveals a rich set of emission lines indicating that the explosion occurred within a nebula composed of carbon, oxygen and neon. Narrow absorption features show that this material is expanding at high velocities (greater than 1,500 kilometres per second), requiring a compact progenitor. Our observations are consistent with an explosion of a massive WC/WO star, and suggest that massive Wolf-Rayet stars may be the progenitors of some rapidly evolving transients.

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References

1. Nature. 2006 Aug 31;442(7106):1008-10 - PubMed
1. Nature. 2013 Feb 7;494(7435):65-7 - PubMed
1. Nature. 2007 Jun 14;447(7146):829-32 - PubMed
1. Science. 2008 Aug 29;321(5893):1185-8 - PubMed
1. Nature. 2014 May 22;509(7501):471-4 - PubMed

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A WC/WO star exploding within an expanding carbon-oxygen-neon nebula

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A WC/WO star exploding within an expanding carbon-oxygen-neon nebula

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