Massive stars dying alone: The extremely remote environment of SN 2009ip

Abstract

We present late-time HST images of the site of supernova (SN) 2009ip taken almost 3 yr after its bright 2012 luminosity peak. SN 2009ip is now slightly fainter in broad filters than the progenitor candidate detected by HST in 1999. The current source continues to be dominated by ongoing late-time CSM interaction that produces strong H-alpha emission and a weak pseudo-continuum, as found previously for 1-2 yr after explosion. The intent of these observations was to search for evidence of recent star formation in the local (1kpc; 10 arcsec) environment around SN 2009ip, in the remote outskirts of its host spiral galaxy NGC 7259. We can rule out the presence of any massive star-forming complexes like 30 Dor or the Carina Nebula at the SN site or within a few kpc. If the progenitor of SN 2009ip was really a 50-80 Msun star as archival HST images suggested, then it is strange that there is no sign of this type of massive star formation anywhere in the vicinity. A possible explanation is that the progenitor was the product of a merger or binary mass transfer, rejuvenated after a lifetime that was much longer than 4-5 Myr, allowing its natal H II region to have faded. A smaller region like the Orion Nebula would be an unresolved but easily detected point source. This is ruled out within 1.5 kpc around SN 2009ip, but a small H II region could be hiding in the glare of SN 2009ip itself. Later images after a few more years have passed are needed to confirm that the progenitor candidate is truly gone and to test for the presence of a small H II region or cluster at the SN position.

arXiv comment8 pages, 5 figs. submitted to MNRAS

References in corpus (42)

• Starburst99: Synthesis Models for Galaxies with Active Star Formation
• Cosmic-Ray Rejection by Laplacian Edge Detection
• Mass Loss: Its Effect on the Evolution and Fate of High-Mass Stars
• Pre-Supernova Evolution of Massive Single and Binary Stars
• Pulsational pair instability as an explanation for the most luminous supernovae
• A Robotic Wide-Angle H-Alpha Survey of the Southern Sky
• Wave-Driven Mass Loss in the Last Year of Stellar Evolution: Setting the Stage for the Most Luminous Core-Collapse Supernovae
• The Unprecedented 2012 Outburst of SN 2009ip: A Luminous Blue Variable Becomes a True Supernova
• Interacting Supernovae and Supernova Impostors. SN 2009ip, is this the end?
• Preparing for an Explosion: Hydrodynamic Instabilities and Turbulence in Presupernovae
• A panchromatic view of the restless SN2009ip reveals the explosive ejection of a massive star envelope
• Discovery of Precursor LBV Outbursts in Two Recent Optical Transients: The Fitfully Variable Missing Links UGC 2773-OT and SN 2009ip
• Coronal lines and dust formation in SN 2005ip: Not the brightest, but the hottest Type IIn supernova
• Luminous Blue Variables are Antisocial: Their Isolation Implies that they are Kicked Mass Gainers in Binary Evolution
• A Census of the Carina Nebula. I: Cumulative Energy Input from Massive Stars
• Progenitor mass constraints for core-collapse supernovae from correlations with host galaxy star formation
• The Diversity of Massive Star Outbursts I: Observations of SN 2009ip, UGC 2773 OT2009-1, and Their Progenitors
• Luminous Blue Variables and superluminous supernovae from binary mergers
• A Massive Progenitor of the Luminous Type IIn Supernova 2010jl
• SN 2009ip á la PESSTO: No evidence for core-collapse yet
• SN 2005 gj: Evidence for LBV supernovae progenitors?
• Multi-epoch spectropolarimetry of SN 2009ip: direct evidence for aspherical circumstellar material
• The Rise of the Remarkable Type IIn Supernova SN 2009ip
• A Census of the Carina Nebula -- II. Energy Budget and Global Properties of the Nebulosity
• On the Social Traits of Luminous Blue Variables
• Clues To The Nature of SN 2009ip from Photometric and Spectroscopic Evolution to Late Times
• Explaining the supernova impostor sn 2009ip as mergerburst
• On the association between core-collapse supernovae and HII regions
• Explosions Triggered by Violent Binary-Star Collisions: Application to Eta Carinae and other Eruptive Transients
• Environments of interacting transients: Impostors and type IIn supernovae
• SN2009ip: Constraints on the progenitor mass-loss rate
• A Multi-Color Optical Survey of the Orion Nebula Cluster. Part I: the Catalog
• Explosive Common-Envelope Ejection: Implications for Gamma-Ray Bursts and Low-Mass Black-Hole Binaries
• SN 2009ip at late times - an interacting transient at +2 years
• The Peculiar Balmer Decrement of SN 2009ip: Constraints on Circumstellar Geometry
• Powering the Second 2012 Outburst of SN 2009ip by Repeating Binary Interaction
• Blue supergiant progenitor models of Type II supernovae
• Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of SN2009ip's 2012 Brightening Reveals a Dusty Pre-Supernova Environment
• A Closer Look at the Fluctuations in Brightness of SN 2009ip During Its Late 2012 Eruption
• Big Fish in Small Ponds: Massive Stars in the Low Mass Clusters of M83
• The isolation of Luminous Blue Variables: On subdividing the sample
• SN 2009ip: Constraining the latest explosion properties by its late-phase light curve

Cited by in corpus (29)

• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Convective Boundaries, Element Diffusion, and Massive Star Explosions
• Pulsational Pair-Instability Supernovae
• Light-curve and spectral properties of ultra-stripped core-collapse supernovae leading to binary neutron stars
• Supernovae 2016bdu and 2005gl, and their link with SN 2009ip-like transients: another piece of the puzzle
• The bumpy light curve of supernova iPTF13z
• Circumstellar interaction in supernovae in dense environments - an observational perspective
• The Nearby Type Ibn Supernova 2015G: Signatures of Asymmetry and Progenitor Constraints
• On the Gaia DR2 distances for Galactic Luminous Blue Variables
• Seven years of coordinated Chandra-NuSTAR observations of SN2014C unfold the extreme mass-loss history of its stellar progenitor
• SN 2009ip after a decade: The luminous blue variable progenitor is now gone
• Clues to the Nature of SN 2009ip II: The Continuing Photometric and Spectroscopic Evolution to 1000 Days
• The Candidate Progenitor of the Type IIn SN 2010jl is Not an Optically Luminous Star
• Progenitor, environment, and modelling of the interacting transient, AT 2016jbu (Gaia16cfr)
• Extreme isolation of WN3/O3 stars and implications for their evolutionary origin as the elusive stripped binaries
• Type II intermediate-luminosity optical transients (ILOTs)
• A new and unusual LBV-like outburst from a Wolf-Rayet star in the outskirts of M33
• The Type IIn Supernova 2010bt: The Explosion of a Star in Outburst
• Unveiling the Nature of SN 2011fh: a Young and Massive Star Gives Rise to a Luminous SN 2009ip-like Event
• Photometric and spectroscopic evolution of the peculiar Type IIn SN 2012ab
• The Extraplanar Type II Supernova ASASSN-14jb in the Nearby Edge-on Galaxy ESO 467-G051
• HSC16aayt: Slowly evolving interacting transient rising for more than 100 days
• Kinematics of Luminous Blue Variables in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• A comprehensive grid of massive binary evolution models for the Galaxy - Surface properties of post-mass transfer stars
• Very late-time spectroscopy of SN 2009ip: Constraints on the ongoing H$\alpha$ emission
• Massive stars dying alone: the remote environment of SN 2010jp and its associated late-time source
• One of Everything: The Breakthrough Listen Exotica Catalog
• High Cadence TESS and ground-based data of SN 2019esa, the less energetic sibling of SN 2006gy
• SN 2024hpj: A perspective on SN 2009ip-like events
• Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Reveals That SN 2015bh Is Much Fainter than Its Progenitor