An Unusually Fast-Evolving Supernova

Abstract

Analyses of supernovae (SNe) have revealed two main types of progenitors: exploding white dwarfs and collapsing massive stars. We present SN2002bj, which stands out as different from any SN reported to date. Its light curve rises and declines very rapidly, yet reaches a peak intrinsic brightness greater than -18 mag. A spectrum obtained 7 days after discovery shows the presence of helium and intermediate-mass elements, yet no clear hydrogen or iron-peak elements. The spectrum only barely resembles that of a Type Ia supernova, with added carbon and helium. Its properties suggest that SN2002bj may be representative of a class of progenitors that previously has been only hypothesized: a helium detonation on a white dwarf, ejecting a small envelope of material. New surveys should find many such objects, despite their scarcity.

Science in press, first published online on Nov 5, 2009 in Science Express. Includes supporting online material

References in corpus (8)

• The type Ia supernova SNLS-03D3bb from a super-Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf star
• Faint Thermonuclear Supernovae from AM Canum Venaticorum Binaries
• From Shock Breakout to Peak and Beyond: Extensive Panchromatic Observations of the Type Ib Supernova 2008D associated with Swift X-ray Transient 080109
• Improved Distances to Type Ia Supernovae with Two Spectroscopic Subclasses
• Secondary Maximum in the Near-Infrared Lightcurves of Type Ia Supernovae
• The Luminous and Carbon-Rich Supernova 2006gz: A Double Degenerate Merger?
• Unstable Helium Shell Burning on Accreting White Dwarfs
• Towards a Cosmological Hubble Diagram for Type II-P Supernovae

Cited by in corpus (102)

• Electromagnetic Counterparts of Compact Object Mergers Powered by the Radioactive Decay of R-process Nuclei
• Optical emission from a kilonova following a gravitational-wave-detected neutron-star merger
• Type Iax Supernovae: A New Class of Stellar Explosion
• Rapidly-Evolving and Luminous Transients from Pan-STARRS1
• Sub-Chandrasekhar Mass Models For Type Ia Supernovae
• An embedded X-ray source shines through the aspherical AT2018cow: revealing the inner workings of the most luminous fast-evolving optical transients
• Supernova Light Curves Powered by Fallback Accretion
• The Fast, Luminous Ultraviolet Transient AT2018cow: Extreme Supernova, or Disruption of a Star by an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole?
• Relativistic shock breakouts - a variety of gamma-ray flares: from low luminosity gamma-ray bursts to type Ia supernovae
• Thermonuclear .Ia Supernovae from Helium Shell Detonations: Explosion Models and Observables
• The structure and fate of white dwarf merger remnants
• Nearby Supernova Rates from the Lick Observatory Supernova Search. I. The Methods and Database
• Observational and Physical Classification of Supernovae
• Rapidly evolving transients in the Dark Energy Survey
• The Extremes of Thermonuclear Supernovae
• Observational Properties of Thermonuclear Supernovae
• 2D simulations of the double-detonation model for thermonuclear transients from low-mass carbon-oxygen white dwarfs
• Rapidly Decaying Supernova 2010X: A Candidate ".Ia" Explosion
• Rapidly Rising Transients in the Supernova - Superluminous Supernova Gap
• Type Ia Supernova Explosions in Binary Systems: A Review
• Analyzing the Largest Spectroscopic Dataset of Stripped Supernovae to Improve Their Identifications and Constrain Their Progenitors
• SN 2009jf: a slow-evolving stripped-envelope core-collapse supernova
• Helium Shell Detonations on Low Mass White Dwarfs as a Possible Explanation for SN 2005E
• A Study of Carbon Features in Type Ia Supernova Spectra
• A mildly relativistic outflow from the energetic, fast-rising blue optical transient CSS161010 in a dwarf galaxy
• The Fast and Furious Decay of the Peculiar Type Ic Supernova 2005ek
• A hot and fast ultra-stripped supernova that likely formed a compact neutron star binary
• Nuclear-dominated accretion and subluminous supernovae from the merger of a white dwarf with a neutron star or black hole
• A Search for Extragalactic Fast Blue Optical Transients in ZTF and the Rate of AT2018cow-like Transients
• Type Ia Supernova Carbon Footprints
• Observational properties of extreme supernovae
• Rapidly Rising Transients from Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam Transient Survey
• PTF10iya: A short-lived, luminous flare from the nuclear region of a star-forming galaxy
• Producing type Iax supernovae from a specific class of helium-ignited WD explosions?
• Light-curve and spectral properties of ultra-stripped core-collapse supernovae leading to binary neutron stars
• Time dependent models of accretion disks with nuclear burning following the tidal disruption of a white dwarf by a neutron star
• The Double-Peaked SN2013ge: a Type Ib/c SN with an Asymmetric Mass Ejection or an Extended Progenitor Envelope
• Evidence for Late-stage Eruptive Mass-loss in the Progenitor to SN2018gep, a Broad-lined Ic Supernova: Pre-explosion Emission and a Rapidly Rising Luminous Transient
• Optical and Near-IR Observations of the Faint and Fast 2008ha-like Supernova 2010ae
• Massive stars exploding in a He-rich circumstellar medium - IX. SN 2014av, and characterization of Type Ibn SNe
• The demographics of neutron star - white dwarf mergers: rates, delay-time distributions and progenitors
• Nickel-Rich Outflows Produced by the Accretion-Induced Collapse of White Dwarfs: Lightcurves and Spectra
• The Subluminous and Peculiar Type Ia Supernova PTF09dav
• Hubble Space Telescope and Ground-Based Observations of the Type Iax Supernovae SN 2005hk and SN 2008A
• PESSTO monitoring of SN 2012hn: further heterogeneity among faint type I supernovae
• Radio and X-ray observations of the luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient AT2020xnd
• Rapidly Fading Supernovae from Massive Star Explosions
• SN2019dge: a Helium-rich Ultra-Stripped Envelope Supernova
• Neutron star - white dwarf mergers: Early evolution, physical properties, and outcomes
• Properties of Type Ibn Supernovae: Implications for the Progenitor Evolution and the Origin of a Population of Rapid Transients
• New approaches to SNe Ia progenitors
• The progenitors of calcium-rich transients are not formed in situ
• Rapidly Evolving and Luminous Transients Driven by Newly Born Neutron Stars
• SN 2015U: A Rapidly Evolving and Luminous Type Ibn Supernova
• Revealing Type Ia supernova physics with cosmic rates and nuclear gamma rays
• Shocked jets in CCSNe can power the zoo of fast blue optical transients
• Subluminous Type Ia Supernovae at High Redshift from the Supernova Legacy Survey
• Laterally Propagating Detonations in Thin Helium Layers on Accreting White Dwarfs
• GHOST: Using Only Host Galaxy Information to Accurately Associate and Distinguish Supernovae
• An Emerging Class of Bright, Fast-evolving Supernovae with Low-mass Ejecta
• Model Light Curves for Type Ib and Ic Supernovae
• Faint rapid red transients from Neutron star -- CO white-dwarf mergers
• Anomaly Detection in the Open Supernova Catalog
• The Effects of Curvature and Expansion on Helium Detonations on White Dwarf Surfaces
• Massive stars exploding in a He-rich circumstellar medium. VI. Observations of two distant Type Ibn supernova candidates discovered by La Silla-QUEST
• The Rise-Time of Normal and Subluminous Type Ia Supernovae
• Helium in Double-Detonation Models of Type Ia Supernovae
• Probing the extragalactic fast transient sky at minute timescales with DECam
• OGLE-2013-SN-079: a lonely supernova consistent with a helium shell detonation
• SN2018kzr: a rapidly declining transient from the destruction of a white dwarf
• The Unprecedented Properties of the First Electromagnetic Counterpart to a Gravitational Wave Source
• Defining Photometric Peculiar Type Ia Supernovae
• Novel Model of an Ultra-stripped Supernova Progenitor of a Double Neutron Star
• Rapidly Evolving Transients from the Hyper Suprime-Cam SSP Transient Survey
• AT2018kzr: the merger of an oxygen-neon white dwarf and a neutron star or black hole
• The Most Rapidly Declining Type I Supernova 2019bkc/ATLAS19dqr
• Interaction of a Supernova with a Circumstellar Disk
• The rise and fall of an extraordinary Ca-rich transient -- The discovery of ATLAS19dqr/SN 2019bkc
• Relic proto-stellar disks and the origin of luminous circumstellar interaction in core collapse supernovae
• LSQ13ddu: A rapidly-evolving stripped-envelope supernova with early circumstellar interaction signatures
• Models of bright nickel-free supernovae from stripped massive stars with circumstellar shells
• Calcium-rich Transient SN 2019ehk in A Star-Forming Environment: Yet Another Candidate for An Ultra-Stripped Envelope Supernova
• Supernovae powered by magnetars that transform into black holes
• Fast and Luminous Transients from the Explosions of Long Lived Massive White Dwarf Merger Remnants
• SN 2016dsg: A Thermonuclear Explosion Involving A Thick Helium Shell
• Panning for gold, but finding helium: discovery of the ultra-stripped supernova SN2019wxt from gravitational-wave follow-up observations
• Neutrino Emission from Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients
• SN 2017czd: A Rapidly Evolving Supernova from a Weak Explosion of a Type IIb Supernova Progenitor
• White dwarf dynamical interactions and fast optical transients
• The Carnegie Supernova Project-I. Optical spectroscopy of stripped-envelope supernovae
• Peculiar Spectral Evolution of the Type I Supernova 2019eix: A Possible Double Detonation from a Helium Shell on a Sub-Chandrasekhar-mass White Dwarf
• Effects of Rotationally-Induced Mixing in Compact Binary Systems with Low-Mass Secondaries and in Single Solar-Type Stars
• Massive stars exploding in a He-rich circumstellar medium. XI. Diverse evolution of five Ibn SNe 2020nxt, 2020taz, 2021bbv, 2023utc and 2024aej
• Shock Breakout from Stellar Envelopes: The relativistic limit
• Massive stars exploding in a He-rich circumstellar medium $-$ X. Flash spectral features in the Type Ibn SN 2019cj and observations of SN 2018jmt
• G4.8+6.2, a possible kilonova remnant?
• JWST Detection of Hydrocarbon Ices and Methane Gas on Makemake
• Light-curve Modelling for The Initial Rising Phase of Rapidly-evolving Transients Powered by Continuous Outflow
• Rotational Dynamics in Pulsational Pair-Instability Supernovae: Implications for Mass-Loss and Transient Events
• A precursor interpretation for the Crab supernova 1054 A.D. very early light curve
• A Fast-Evolving, Luminous Transient Discovered by K2/Kepler
• Faintest of them all : ZTF 21aaoryiz/SN 2021fcg -- Discovery of an extremely low luminosity type Iax supernova