Rapid formation of large dust grains in the luminous supernova SN 2010jl

Abstract

The origin of dust in galaxies is still a mystery. The majority of the refractory elements are produced in supernova explosions but it is unclear how and where dust grains condense and grow, and how they avoid destruction in the harsh environments of star-forming galaxies. The recent detection of 0.1-0.5 solar masses of dust in nearby supernova remnants suggests in situ dust formation, while other observations reveal very little dust in supernovae the first few years after explosion. Observations of the bright SN 2010jl have been interpreted as pre-existing dust, dust formation or no dust at all. Here we report the rapid (40-240 days) formation of dust in its dense circumstellar medium. The wavelength dependent extinction of this dust reveals the presence of very large (> 1 micron) grains, which are resistant to destructive processes. At later times (500-900 days), the near-IR thermal emission shows an accelerated growth in dust mass, marking the transition of the supernova from a circumstellar- to an ejecta-dominated source of dust. This provides the link between the early and late dust mass evolution in supernovae with dense circumstellar media.

62 pages, 13 figures, 1 table. Author version of the Letter to Nature, published online July 9 2014 (Nature, 511, 7509, pp. 326-329 (2014)), prior to the final editorial changes to conform to Journal style; includes Methods and Extended Data Figures and the Supplementary Information. See published version http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v511/n7509/full/nature13558.html

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• The timing and location of dust formation in the remnant of SN 1987A
• Dust production 680-850 million years after the Big Bang
• The Lyman-alpha signature of the first galaxies
• Constraints on Type IIn Supernova Progenitor Outbursts from the Lick Observatory Supernova Search
• Formation and properties of astrophysical carbonaceous dust. I: ab-initio calculations of the configuration and binding energies of small carbon clusters
• Near infrared spectroscopy of the type IIn SN 2010jl: evidence for high velocity ejecta
• The Herschel view of the nebula around the luminous blue variable star AG Carinae
• From flux to dust mass: Does the grain-temperature distribution matter for estimates of cold dust masses in supernova remnants?