SN2023ixf in Messier 101: A Variable Red Supergiant as the Progenitor Candidate to a Type II Supernova

Abstract

We present pre-explosion optical and infrared (IR) imaging at the site of the type II supernova (SN II) 2023ixf in Messier 101 at 6.9 Mpc. We astrometrically registered a ground-based image of SN 2023ixf to archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Spitzer Space Telescope (Spitzer), and ground-based near-IR images. A single point source is detected at a position consistent with the SN at wavelengths ranging from HST $R$-band to Spitzer 4.5 $\mu$m. Fitting to blackbody and red supergiant (RSG) spectral-energy distributions (SEDs), we find that the source is anomalously cool with a significant mid-IR excess. We interpret this SED as reprocessed emission in a 8600 $R_{\odot }$ circumstellar shell of dusty material with a mass $\sim$5$\times 10^{-5}{M}_{\odot }$ surrounding a $\log (L/L_{\odot })=4.74\pm 0.07$ and $T_{\mathrm{eff}}=3920\begin{array}{c}+200\\ -160\end{array}$ K RSG. This luminosity is consistent with RSG models of initial mass 11 $M_{\odot }$, depending on assumptions of rotation and overshooting. In addition, the counterpart was significantly variable in pre-explosion Spitzer 3.6 $\mu$m and 4.5 $\mu$m imaging, exhibiting $\sim$70% variability in both bands correlated across 9 yr and 29 epochs of imaging. The variations appear to have a timescale of 2.8 yr, which is consistent with $\kappa$-mechanism pulsations observed in RSGs, albeit with a much larger amplitude than RSGs such as $\alpha$ Orionis (Betelgeuse).

14 pages, 5 figures, submitted to ApJL, comments welcome

References in corpus (23)

• The Astropy Project: Sustaining and Growing a Community-oriented Open-source Project and the Latest Major Release (v5.0) of the Core Package
• A grid of MARCS model atmospheres for late-type stars I. Methods and general properties
• The All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) Light Curve Server v1.0
• Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis Version 2.1: construction, observational verification and new results
• The death of massive stars - I. Observational constraints on the progenitors of type II-P supernovae
• Nucleosynthesis and Remnants in Massive Stars of Solar Metallicity
• Observational constraints on the progenitors of core-collapse supernovae : the case for missing high mass stars
• Confined Dense Circumstellar Material Surrounding a Regular Type II Supernova: The Unique Flash-Spectroscopy Event of SN 2013fs
• A Wolf-Rayet-like progenitor of supernova SN 2013cu from spectral observations of a wind
• The Effective Temperatures and Physical Properties of Magellanic Cloud Red Supergiants: The Effects of Metallicity
• Unifying Type II Supernova Light Curves with Dense Circumstellar Material
• A new mass-loss rate prescription for red supergiants
• The Initial Masses of the Red Supergiant Progenitors to Type-II Supernovae
• Probing the mass-loss history of AGB and red supergiant stars from CO rotational line profiles I. Theoretical model -- Mass-loss history unravelled in VY CMa
• A Cool and Inflated Progenitor Candidate for the Type Ib Supernova 2019yvr at 2.6 Years Before Explosion
• The Type II-Plateau Supernova 2017eaw in NGC 6946 and Its Red Supergiant Progenitor
• Ruling out a massive-assymptoic giant-branch star as the progenitor of supernova 2005cs
• Red Supergiant Stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud: I. The Period-Luminosity Relation
• Probing the Final-stage Progenitor Evolution for Type IIP Supernova 2017eaw in NGC 6946
• Explosion Imminent: the appearance of Red Supergiants at the point of core-collapse
• The Red Supergiant Binary Fraction as a Function of Metallicity in M31 and M33
• Cool, Luminous, and Highly Variable Stars in the Magellanic Clouds from ASAS-SN: Implications for Thorne-Żytkow Objects and Super-Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars
• A Spitzer Survey for Dust-Obscured Supernovae

Cited by in corpus (29)

• The CosmoVerse White Paper: Addressing observational tensions in cosmology with systematics and fundamental physics
• The Science of the Einstein Telescope
• From Discovery to the First Month of the Type II Supernova 2023ixf: High and Variable Mass Loss in the Final Year before Explosion
• Early Spectroscopy and Dense Circumstellar Medium Interaction in SN 2023ixf
• A Shock Flash Breaking Out of a Dusty Red Supergiant
• Far-Ultraviolet to Near-Infrared Observations of SN 2023ixf: A high energy explosion engulfed in complex circumstellar material
• Pre-supernova evolution and final fate of stellar mergers and accretors of binary mass transfer
• The Dusty and Extremely Red Progenitor of the Type II Supernova 2023ixf in Messier 101
• Progenitor mass and ejecta asymmetry of SN 2023ixf from nebular spectroscopy
• Constraining MeV-scale axion-like particles with Fermi-LAT observations of SN 2023ixf
• The effect of mass loss in models of red supergiants in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• SN 2023ixf -- an average-energy explosion with circumstellar medium and a precursor
• The nebular spectra of SN 2023ixf: A lower mass, partially stripped progenitor may be the result of binary interaction
• Search for gravitational waves emitted from SN 2023ixf
• Early-time gamma-ray constraints on cosmic-ray acceleration in the core-collapse SN 2023ixf with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
• Investigating episodic mass loss in evolved massive stars: II. Physical properties of red supergiants at subsolar metallicity
• The Immediate, Exemplary, and Fleeting echelle spectroscopy of SN 2023ixf: Monitoring acceleration of slow progenitor circumstellar material, driven by shock interaction
• One Year of SN 2023ixf: Breaking Through the Degenerate Parameter Space in Light-Curve Models with Pulsating Progenitors
• SN 2024ggi: another year, another striking Type II supernova
• Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Detection of Carbon Monoxide in the Type II Supernova SN 2023ixf
• Pre-supernova outbursts by core magnetic activity
• The nebular phase of SN 2024ggi: a low-mass progenitor with no signs of interaction
• Explosions of pulsating red supergiants: a natural pathway for the diversity of Type II-P/L supernovae
• An unexplored regime of shock breakout with a distinct spectral signature
• SN 2023ixf: interaction signatures in the spectrum at 445 days
• Stellar evolution through the Red Supergiant phase
• GFH-v2 Pipeline for Searches of Long-Transient Gravitational Waves from Newborn Magnetars
• A choked jet in SN 2023ixf?
• Multimessenger Constraints on the Central Engine in SN 2023ixf: Neutron Star or Black Hole?