SN~1991T: Reflections of Past Glory
Abstract
We have obtained photometry and spectra of SN~1991T which extend more than 1000 days past maximum light, by far the longest a SN~Ia has been followed. Although SN~1991T exhibited nearly normal photometric behavior in the first 400 days following maximum, by 600 days its decline had slowed, and by 950~days the supernova brightness was consistent with a constant apparent magnitude of . Spectra near maximum showed minor variations on the SN~Ia theme which grew less conspicuous during the exponential decline. At 270 days the nebular spectrum was composed of Fe and Co lines common to SNe~Ia. However, by 750 days past maximum light, these lines had shifted in wavelength, and were superimposed on a strong blue continuum. The luminosity of SN~1991T at 950 days is more than ~ergs~s with a rate of decline of less than mags/100~days. We show that this emission is likely to be light that was emitted by SN~1991T near maximum light which has reflected from foreground dust, much like the light echos observed around SN~1987A.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9407097,
title = {SN~1991T: Reflections of Past Glory},
author = {Brian P. Schmidt and Robert P. Kirshner and Bruno Leibundgut and Lisa A. Wells and Alain C. Porter and Pilar Ruiz-Lapuente and Peter Challis and Alexei V. Filippenko},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9407097},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
15 pages (includes figures and tables) uuencoded compressed postscript, CfA Preprint - To Appear in ApJL