An asymmetric energetic type Ic supernova viewed off-axis, and a link to gamma ray bursts. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Type Ic supernovae, the explosions after the core collapse of massive stars that have previously lost their hydrogen and helium envelopes, are particularly interesting because of their link with long-duration gamma ray bursts. Although indications exist that these explosions are aspherical, direct evidence has been missing. Late-time observations of supernova SN 2003jd, a luminous type Ic supernova, provide such evidence. Recent Subaru and Keck spectra reveal double-peaked profiles in the nebular lines of neutral oxygen and magnesium. These profiles are different from those of known type Ic supernovae, with or without a gamma ray burst, and they can be understood if SN 2003jd was an aspherical axisymmetric explosion viewed from near the equatorial plane. If SN 2003jd was associated with a gamma ray burst, we missed the burst because it was pointing away from us.

published proceedings

  • Science

altmetric score

  • 8.872

author list (cited authors)

  • Mazzali, P. A., Kawabata, K. S., Maeda, K., Nomoto, K., Filippenko, A. V., Ramirez-Ruiz, E., ... Gal-Yam, A.

citation count

  • 170

complete list of authors

  • Mazzali, Paolo A||Kawabata, Koji S||Maeda, Keiichi||Nomoto, Ken'ichi||Filippenko, Alexei V||Ramirez-Ruiz, Enrico||Benetti, Stefano||Pian, Elena||Deng, Jinsong||Tominaga, Nozomu||Ohyama, Youichi||Iye, Masanori||Foley, Ryan J||Matheson, Thomas||Wang, Lifan||Gal-Yam, Avishay

publication date

  • May 2005