JWST NIRCam Observations of SN 1987A: Spitzer Comparison and Spectral Decomposition
Abstract
JWST NIRCam observations at 1.5-4.5 m have provided broad and narrow band imaging of the evolving remnant of SN 1987A with unparalleled sensitivity and spatial resolution. Comparing with previous marginally spatially resolved Spitzer IRAC observations from 2004-2019 confirms that the emission arises from the circumstellar equatorial ring (ER), and the current brightness at 3.6 and 4.5 m was accurately predicted by extrapolation of the declining brightness tracked by IRAC. Despite the regular light curve, the NIRCam observations clearly reveal that much of this emission is from a newly developing outer portion of the ER. Spots in the outer ER tend to lie at position angles in between the well-known ER hotspots. We show that the bulk of the emission in the field can be represented by 5 standard spectral energy distributions (SEDs), each with a distinct origin and spatial distribution. This spectral decomposition provides a powerful technique for distinguishing overlapping emission from the circumstellar medium (CSM) and the supernova (SN) ejecta, excited by the forward and reverse shocks respectively.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2309.13011,
title = {JWST NIRCam Observations of SN 1987A: Spitzer Comparison and Spectral Decomposition},
author = {Richard G. Arendt and Martha L. Boyer and Eli Dwek and Mikako Matsuura and Aravind P. Ravi and Armin Rest and Roger Chevalier and Phil Cigan and Ilse De Looze and Guido De Marchi and Claes Fransson and Christa Gall and R. D. Gehrz and Haley L. Gomez and Tuomas Kangas and Florian Kirchschlager and Robert P. Kirshner and Josefin Larsson and Peter Lundqvist and Dan Milisavljevic and Sangwook Park and Nathan Smith and Jason Spyromilio and Tea Temim and Lifan Wang and J. Craig Wheeler and Charles E. Woodward},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.13011},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in ApJ. 16 pages, 12 figures. 2 animations not included here