Census of Self-Obscured Massive Stars in Nearby Galaxies with Spitzer: Implications for Understanding the Progenitors of SN 2008S-Like Transients

Abstract

A new link in the causal mapping between massive stars and potentially fatal explosive transients opened with the 2008 discovery of the dust-obscured progenitors of the luminous outbursts in NGC 6946 and NGC 300. Here we carry out a systematic mid-IR photometric search for massive, luminous, self-obscured stars in four nearby galaxies: M33, NGC 300, M81, and NGC 6946. For detection, we use only the 3.6 micron and 4.5 micron IRAC bands, as these can still be used for multi-epoch Spitzer surveys of nearby galaxies (=<10 Mpc). We combine familiar PSF and aperture-photometry with an innovative application of image subtraction to catalog the self-obscured massive stars in these galaxies. In particular, we verify that stars analogous to the progenitors of the NGC 6946 (SN 2008S) and NGC 300 transients are truly rare in all four galaxies: their number may be as low as ~1 per galaxy at any given moment. This result empirically supports the idea that the dust-enshrouded phase is a very short-lived phenomenon in the lives of many massive stars and that these objects constitute a natural extension of the AGB sequence. We also provide mid-IR catalogs of sources in NGC 300, M81, and NGC 6946.

21 pages, 15 figures, 11 tables. Accepted by ApJ on April 12, 2010. High resolution figures and full length versions of tables 6, 8 and 10 can be accessed at http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~khan/redstars/

References in corpus (26)

• The death of massive stars - I. Observational constraints on the progenitors of type II-P supernovae
• Comparison of H-alpha and UV Star Formation Rates in the Local Volume: Systematic Discrepancies for Dwarf Galaxies
• The Spitzer Local Volume Legacy: Survey Description and Infrared Photometry
• An H-alpha Imaging Survey of Galaxies in the Local 11 Mpc Volume
• A Survey of Local Group Galaxies Currently Forming Stars. I. UBVRI Photometry of Stars in M31 and M33
• The Supernova Channel of Super-AGB Stars
• Discovery of Precursor LBV Outbursts in Two Recent Optical Transients: The Fitfully Variable Missing Links UGC 2773-OT and SN 2009ip
• Spitzer SAGE Infrared Photometry of Massive Stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The Spitzer Deep, Wide-Field Survey
• A New Class of Luminous Transients and A First Census of Their Massive Stellar Progenitors
• Spitzer SAGE survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud II: Evolved Stars and Infrared Color Magnitude Diagrams
• Cepheid Distances to SNe Ia Host Galaxies based on a Revised Photometric Zero-Point of the HST-WFPC2 and New P-L Relations and Metallicity Corrections
• Photometric and spectroscopic evolution of the type IIP supernova SN 2004et
• High and Intermediate-Mass Young Stellar Objects in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The 2008 Luminous Optical Transient in the Nearby Galaxy NGC 300
• An Intermediate Luminosity Transient in NGC300: The Eruption of a Dust-Enshrouded Massive Star
• SN 2008S: A Cool Super-Eddington Wind in a Supernova Impostor
• EC-SNe from super-AGB progenitors: theoretical models vs. observations
• A Spitzer/IRS Spectrum of the 2008 Luminous Transient in NGC 300: Connection to Proto-Planetary Nebulae
• Mid infrared properties of distant infrared luminous galaxies
• The M33 Variable Star Population Revealed by Spitzer
• Discovery of Extreme Carbon Stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• NGC 300 OT2008-1 As a Scaled-Down Version of the Eta Carinae Great Eruption
• The NGC 300 Transient: An Alternative Method For Measuring Progenitor Masses
• The destruction and survival of dust in the shell around SN 2008S
• A point source survey of M31 with the Spitzer Space Telescope

Cited by in corpus (36)

• Luminous Blue Variable eruptions and related transients: Diversity of progenitors and outburst properties
• The Cosmic Core-collapse Supernova Rate does not match the Massive-Star Formation Rate
• A New Cepheid Distance to the Giant Spiral M101 Based On Image Subtraction of HST/ACS Observations
• Common Envelope ejection for a Luminous Red Nova in M101
• Unmasking the Supernova Impostors
• Almost Gone: SN~2008S and NGC~300 2008OT-1 are Fainter than their Progenitors
• Dusty Explosions from Dusty Progenitors: The Physics of SN2008S and the 2008 NGC300-OT
• The Supernova Impostor Impostor SN 1961V: Spitzer Shows That Zwicky Was Right (Again)
• PTF10fqs: A Luminous Red Nova in the Spiral Galaxy Messier 99
• Red Supergiants as Cosmic Abundance Probes: The Sculptor Galaxy NGC 300
• The Photometric and Spectral Evolution of the 2008 Luminous Optical Transient in NGC 300
• Supernova Progenitors, Their Variability, and the Type IIP Supernova ASASSN-16fq in M66
• An Infrared Census of DUST in Nearby Galaxies with Spitzer (DUSTiNGS). IV. Discovery of High-Redshift AGB Analogs
• Effects of stellar rotation on star formation rates and comparison to core-collapse supernova rates
• SDWFS-MT-1: A Self-Obscured Luminous Supernova at z~0.2
• Discovery of an intermediate-luminosity red transient in M51 and its likely dust-obscured, infrared-variable progenitor
• Interacting supernovae and supernova impostors. SN 2007sv: the major eruption of a massive star in UGC 5979
• Spitzer Point Source Catalogs of $\sim 300,000$ Stars in Seven Nearby Galaxies
• Identification of red supergiants in nearby galaxies with mid-IR photometry
• Dust to Dust: 3 years in the Evolution of the Unusual SN 2008S
• Relic proto-stellar disks and the origin of luminous circumstellar interaction in core collapse supernovae
• SPIRITS Catalog of Infrared Variables: Identification of Extremely Luminous Long Period Variables
• Spitzer Photometry of ~1 Million Stars in M31 and 15 Other Galaxies
• Dusty Stellar Birth and Death in the Metal-Poor Galaxy NGC 6822
• Identification of dusty massive stars in star-forming dwarf irregular galaxies in the Local Group with mid-IR photometry
• SN2002bu -- Another SN2008S-like Transient
• Finding η Car Analogs in Nearby Galaxies Using Spitzer: I. Candidate Selection
• Observations of the Optical Transient in NGC 300 with AKARI/IRC: Possibilities of Asymmetric Dust Formation
• The Infrared Massive Stellar Content of M83
• Object-X: The Brightest Mid-IR Point Source in M33
• Finding $\eta$ Car Analogs in Nearby Galaxies Using Spitzer: II. Identification of An Emerging Class of Extragalactic Self-Obscured Stars
• The Massive Star Population in M101. III. Spectra and Photometry of the Luminous and Variable Stars
• The Search for Failed Supernovae with the Large Binocular Telescope: N6946-BH1, Still No Star
• Discovery of Five Candidate Analogs for $\eta$Carinae in Nearby Galaxies
• Characterization of the Most Luminous Star in M33: A Super Symbiotic Binary
• The Identification of Extreme Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars and Red Supergiants in M33 by 24 μm Variability