JWST/MIRI detects the dusty SN1993J about 30 years after explosion

May 2025 • 2025A&A...697A.132S

Authors • Szalai, Tamás • Zsíros, Szanna • Jencson, Jacob • Fox, Ori D. • Shahbandeh, Melissa • Sarangi, Arkaprabha • Temim, Tea • De Looze, Ilse • Smith, Nathan • Filippenko, Alexei V. • Van Dyk, Schuyler D. • Andrews, Jennifer • Ashall, Chris • Clayton, Geoffrey C. • Dessart, Luc • Dulude, Michael • Dwek, Eli • Gomez, Sebastian • Johansson, Joel • Milisavljevic, Dan • Pierel, Justin • Rest, Armin • Tinyanont, Samaporn • Brink, Thomas G. • De, Kishalay • Engesser, Michael • Foley, Ryan J. • Gezari, Suvi • Kasliwal, Mansi • Lau, Ryan • Marston, Anthony • O'Steen, Richard • Siebert, Matthew • Skrutskie, Michael • Strolger, Lou • Wang, Qinan • Williams, Brian J. • Williams, Robert • Xiao, Lin • Zheng, WeiKang

Abstract • Context. Core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) have long been considered to contribute significantly to the cosmic dust budget. Newly-formed dust in the SN ejecta cools quickly and is therefore detectable at mid-infrared (mid-IR) wavelengths. However, before the era of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), direct observational evidence for dust condensation was found in only a handful of nearby CCSNe, and dust masses (∼10^‑2 ‑ 10^‑3 M_⊙, generally limited to < 5 yr and to > 500 K temperatures) have been two to three orders of magnitude smaller than theoretical predictions and dust amounts found by far-IR/submillimeter observations of Galactic SN remnants and in the very nearby SN 1987A. Aims. As recently demonstrated, the combined angular resolution and mid-IR sensitivity of JWST finally allow hidden cool (∼100–200 K) dust reservoirs in extragalactic SNe beyond SN 1987A to be revealed. Our team received JWST/MIRI time for studying a larger sample of CCSNe to fill the currently existing gap in their dust formation histories. The first observed target of this program was the well-known Type IIb SN 1993J that appeared in M81. Methods. We generated its spectral energy distribution (SED) from the current JWST/MIRI F770W, F1000W, F1500W, and F2100W fluxes. We fit single- and two-component silicate and carbonaceous dust models to the SED in order to determine the dust parameters. Results. We find that SN 1993J still contains a significant amount (∼0.01 M_⊙) of dust ∼30 yr after explosion. Comparing our results to those from the analysis of earlier Spitzer Space Telescope data, we observed a similar amount of dust as was detected ∼15–20 yr ago, but at a lower temperature (noting that the modeling results of the earlier Spitzer SEDs have strong limitations). We also found residual background emission near the SN site (after point-spread-function subtraction on the JWST/MIRI images) that may plausibly be attributed to an IR echo from more distant interstellar dust grains heated by the SN shock-breakout luminosity or ongoing star formation in the local environment.

Links

• POSTSCRIPT https://www.aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202451470/postscript
• PDF https://www.aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202451470/pdf
• PREPRINT http://arxiv.org/abs/2503.12950
• DATA https://archive.stsci.edu/mastbibref.php?bibcode=2025A%26A...697A.132S
• ELECTR https://doi.org/10.1051%2F0004-6361%2F202451470