Mid-Infrared Dust Evolution and Late-time Circumstellar Medium Interaction in SN 2017eaw
Abstract
We present JWST/MIRI and complementary ground-based near-infrared observations of the Type II SN 2017eaw taken 6 years post-explosion. SN 2017eaw is still detected out to 25 m and there is minimal evolution in the mid-infrared spectral energy distribution (SED) between the newly acquired JWST/MIRI observations and those taken a year earlier. Modeling of the mid-infrared SED reveals a cool 160 K dust component of and a hot 1700 K component of both composed of silicate dust. Notably there is no evidence of temperature or mass evolution in the cool dust component in the year between JWST observations. We also present new and archival HST and ground-based ultraviolet (UV) and optical observations which reveal reduced but continued circumstellar medium (CSM)-ejecta interaction at 2000 days post-explosion. The UV and mid-infrared emission show similar decline rates, suggesting both probe the interface between the ejecta and CSM. Given this, the continued existence of boxy H emission in the nebular spectra, the low inferred optical depth of the dust, and the lack of temperature and mass evolution, we suggest that the cool dust component in SN 2017eaw may be primarily due to pre-existing dust rather than newly-formed dust in the ejecta or cold dense shell.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2507.00125,
title = {Mid-Infrared Dust Evolution and Late-time Circumstellar Medium Interaction in SN 2017eaw},
author = {Jeniveve Pearson and Bhagya Subrayan and David J. Sand and Jennifer E. Andrews and Emma R. Beasor and K. Azalee Bostroem and Yize Dong and Emily Hoang and Griffin Hosseinzadeh and Brian Hsu and Wynn Jacobson-Galán and Daryl Janzen and Jacob Jencson and Saurabh W. Jha and Charles D. Kilpatrick and Lindsey A. Kwok and Chang Liu and M. J. Lundquist and Darshana Mehta and Adam A. Miller and Aravind P. Ravi and Nabeel Rehemtulla and Nicolás Meza Retamal and Manisha Shrestha and Nathan Smith and Stefano Valenti and Lily Whitler},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.00125},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
28 pages, 15 figures - Accepted for publication in ApJ