Discovery of a nearby twin of SN1987A's nebula around the luminous blue variable HD168625: Was Sk--69 202 an LBV?

Abstract

Spitzer images of the luminous blue variable (LBV) candidate HD168625 reveal the existence of a bipolar nebula several times larger than its previously-known equatorial dust torus. The outer nebula of HD168625 has a full extent of about 80 arcsec or 0.85 pc, and one of the lobes has a well-defined polar ring. The nebula is a near twin of the triple-ring system around SN1987A. Because of these polar rings, and accounting for stellar/progenitor luminosity, HD168625 is an even closer twin of SN1987A than the B supergiant Sher 25 in NGC3603. HD168625's nebula was probably ejected during a giant LBV eruption and not during a red supergiant phase, so its similarity to the nebula around SN1987A may open new possibilities for the creation of SN1987A's rings. Namely, the hypothesis that Sk-69 202 suffered an LBV-like eruption would avert the complete surrender of single star models for its bipolar nebula by offering an alternative to an unlikely binary merger scenario. It also hints that LBVs are the likely progenitors of some type II supernovae, and that HD168625's nebula is a good example of a pre-explosion environment.

14 pages, accepted by AJ

References in corpus (1)

• Luminous Blue Variables as the progenitors of supernovae with quasi-periodic radio modulations

Cited by in corpus (39)

• The empirical metallicity dependence of the mass-loss rate of O- and early B-type stars
• A New Class of Luminous Transients and A First Census of Their Massive Stellar Progenitors
• Red supergiants as potential Type IIn supernova progenitors: Spatially resolved 4.6 micron CO emission around VY CMa and Betelgeuse
• A massive cluster of Red Supergiants at the base of the Scutum-Crux arm
• Luminous Blue Variables are Antisocial: Their Isolation Implies that they are Kicked Mass Gainers in Binary Evolution
• SN 2008S: A Cool Super-Eddington Wind in a Supernova Impostor
• SN 2005 gj: Evidence for LBV supernovae progenitors?
• Uncovering the Putative B-Star Binary Companion of the SN 1993J Progenitor
• The Massive Star Content of NGC 3603
• Multiple ring nebulae around blue supergiants
• And in the Darkness Bind Them: Equatorial Rings, B[e] Supergiants, and the Waists of Bipolar Nebulae
• Matter Mixing in Aspherical Core-collapse Supernovae: Three-dimensional Simulations with Single Star and Binary Merger Progenitor Models for SN 1987A
• The NGC 300 Transient: An Alternative Method For Measuring Progenitor Masses
• "Ears" formation in Supernova Remnants: Overhearing an interaction history with bipolar circumstellar structures
• High-resolution spectroscopy of SN 2017hcc and its blueshifted line profiles from post-shock dust formation
• The matter beyond the ring: the recent evolution of SN 1987A observed by the Hubble Space Telescope
• SN 2018bsz: a Type I superluminous supernova with aspherical circumstellar material
• Herschel/PACS observations of the 69 $\mu m$ band of crystalline olivine around evolved stars
• The blue supergiant Sher 25 and its intriguing hourglass nebula
• Near-infrared integral field spectroscopy of the Homunculus nebula around Eta Carinae using Gemini/CIRPASS
• The Structure of the Homunculus. III. Forming a Disk and Bipolar Lobes in a Rotating Surface Explosion
• UKIRT Widefield Infrared Survey for Fe${}^{+}$
• Spectroscopic and photometric oscillatory envelope variability during the S Doradus outburst of the Luminous Blue Variable R71
• Sher 25: pulsating but apparently alone
• Supernova Cooling in a Dark Matter Smog
• Mapping High-velocity H-alpha and Lyman-alpha Emission from Supernova 1987A
• Tracing back the evolution of the candidate LBV HD168625
• Discovery of a new Wolf-Rayet star and a candidate star cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud with Spitzer
• Properties of M31. IV: Candidate Luminous Blue Variables from PAndromeda
• The canonical Luminous Blue Variable AG Car and its neighbor Hen 3-519 are much closer than previously assumed
• The blue supergiant Sher 25 revisited in the Gaia era
• Luminous Blue Variables
• The contribution by luminous blue variable stars to the dust content of the Magellanic Clouds
• Episodic Mass Loss and Pre-SN Circumstellar Envelopes
• Near-infrared characterization of four massive stars in transition phases
• Mass loss and evolution of hot massive stars
• Massive stars dying alone: the remote environment of SN 2010jp and its associated late-time source
• Star Shearing Season -- Transient Signals in Wave-like Dark Matter Experiments from Black Hole Formation
• Millimetre continuum from LBV stars and their environs. NIKA2 observations and Virtual Observatory data