The complex circumstellar environment of supernova 2023ixf

E. A. Zimmerman; I. Irani; P. Chen; A. Gal-Yam; S. Schulze; D. A. Perley; J. Sollerman; A. V. Filippenko; T. Shenar; O. Yaron; S. Shahaf; R. J. Bruch; E. O. Ofek; A. De Cia; T. G. Brink; Y. Yang; S. S. Vasylyev; S. Ben Ami; M. Aubert; A. Badash; J. S. Bloom; P. J. Brown; K. De; G. Dimitriadis; C. Fransson; C. Fremling; K. Hinds; A. Horesh; J. P. Johansson; M. M. Kasliwal; S. R. Kulkarni; D. Kushnir; C. Martin; M. Matuzewski; R. C. McGurk; A. A. Miller; J. Morag; J. D. Neil; P. E. Nugent; R. S. Post; N. Z. Prusinski; Y. Qin; A. Raichoor; R. Riddle; M. Rowe; B. Rusholme; I. Sfaradi; K. M. Sjoberg; M. Soumagnac; R. D. Stein; N. L. Strotjohann; J. H. Terwel; T. Wasserman; J. Wise; A. Wold; L. Yan; K. Zhang

doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07116-6

The complex circumstellar environment of supernova 2023ixf

E. A. Zimmerman^*, I. Irani, P. Chen, A. Gal-Yam, S. Schulze, D. A. Perley, J. Sollerman, A. V. Filippenko, T. Shenar, O. Yaron, S. Shahaf, R. J. Bruch, E. O. Ofek, A. De Cia, T. G. Brink, Y. Yang, S. S. Vasylyev, S. Ben Ami, M. Aubert, A. BadashJ. S. Bloom, P. J. Brown, K. De, G. Dimitriadis, C. Fransson, C. Fremling, K. Hinds, A. Horesh, J. P. Johansson, M. M. Kasliwal, S. R. Kulkarni, D. Kushnir, C. Martin, M. Matuzewski, R. C. McGurk, A. A. Miller, J. Morag, J. D. Neil, P. E. Nugent, R. S. Post, N. Z. Prusinski, Y. Qin, A. Raichoor, R. Riddle, M. Rowe, B. Rusholme, I. Sfaradi, K. M. Sjoberg, M. Soumagnac, R. D. Stein, N. L. Strotjohann, J. H. Terwel, T. Wasserman, J. Wise, A. Wold, L. Yan, K. Zhang

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The early evolution of a supernova (SN) can reveal information about the environment and the progenitor star. When a star explodes in vacuum, the first photons to escape from its surface appear as a brief, hours-long shock-breakout flare^1,2, followed by a cooling phase of emission. However, for stars exploding within a distribution of dense, optically thick circumstellar material (CSM), the first photons escape from the material beyond the stellar edge and the duration of the initial flare can extend to several days, during which the escaping emission indicates photospheric heating³. Early serendipitous observations^2,4 that lacked ultraviolet (UV) data were unable to determine whether the early emission is heating or cooling and hence the nature of the early explosion event. Here we report UV spectra of the nearby SN 2023ixf in the galaxy Messier 101 (M101). Using the UV data as well as a comprehensive set of further multiwavelength observations, we temporally resolve the emergence of the explosion shock from a thick medium heated by the SN emission. We derive a reliable bolometric light curve that indicates that the shock breaks out from a dense layer with a radius substantially larger than typical supergiants.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	759-762
Number of pages	4
Journal	Nature
Volume	627
Issue number	8005
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07116-6
Publication status	Published - 28 Mar 2024

Bibliographical note

We thank B. Katz and E. Waxman for their advice on the physical interpretation of SN 2023ixf. This work is based on observations obtained with HST as part of proposal GO-17205 (PI E. Zimmerman). Based in part on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin 48-inch telescope and the 60-inch telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) project. The ZTF is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant AST-2034437 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Oskar Klein Centre at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt University, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Trinity College Dublin, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, IN2P3, University of Warwick, Ruhr University Bochum and Northwestern University. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC and UW. The SED Machine is based on work supported by the NSF under grant 1106171. Based in part on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), owned in collaboration by the University of Turku and Aarhus University and operated jointly by Aarhus University, the University of Turku and the University of Oslo (representing Denmark, Finland and Norway, respectively), the University of Iceland and Stockholm University, at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. These data were obtained with ALFOSC, which is provided by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (IAA) under a joint agreement with the University of Copenhagen and NOT. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); the Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. This work includes observations obtained at the Liverpool Telescope, which is operated on the island of La Palma by Liverpool John Moores University in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, with financial support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. A major upgrade of the Kast spectrograph on the Shane 3-m telescope at Lick Observatory, led by B. Holden, was made possible through generous gifts from the Heising-Simons Foundation, William and Marina Kast and the University of California Observatories. Research at Lick Observatory is partially supported by a generous gift from Google. This work benefited from the OPTICON telescope access programme (https://www.astro-opticon.org/index.html), financed from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 101004719. Based in part on observations made with the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) operated on the island of La Palma by the Fundación Galileo Galilei of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. This research used data obtained with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). DESI construction and operations is managed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This material is based upon work supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High-Energy Physics, under contract no. DE–AC02–05CH11231, and by the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility under the same contract. Additional support for DESI was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Astronomical Sciences under contract no. AST-0950945 to the NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory; the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA); the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT); the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain (MICINN), and by the DESI Member Institutions: www.desi.lbl.gov/collaborating-institutions. The DESI collaboration is honoured to be permitted to conduct scientific research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak), a mountain with particular significance to the Tohono O’odham Nation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the US National Science Foundation, the US Department of Energy, or any of the listed funding agencies. We made use of IRAF, which is distributed by the NSF NOIR Lab. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, through both the Data-Driven Investigator Program and a dedicated grant, provided critical funding for SkyPortal. A.V.F.’s supernova group at University of California, Berkeley has been supported by S. Nelson, G. and C. Bengier, C. and S. Winslow, S. Robertson, B. and K. Wood, the Christopher R. Redlich Fund and numerous other donors. T.S. acknowledges support from the Comunidad de Madrid (2022-T1/TIC-24117).

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Zimmerman, E. A., Irani, I., Chen, P., Gal-Yam, A., Schulze, S., Perley, D. A., Sollerman, J., Filippenko, A. V., Shenar, T., Yaron, O., Shahaf, S., Bruch, R. J., Ofek, E. O., De Cia, A., Brink, T. G., Yang, Y., Vasylyev, S. S., Ben Ami, S., Aubert, M., ... Zhang, K. (2024). The complex circumstellar environment of supernova 2023ixf. Nature, 627(8005), 759-762. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07116-6

@article{e35f90880cb2477bab9004db6f3c33e1,

title = "The complex circumstellar environment of supernova 2023ixf",

abstract = "The early evolution of a supernova (SN) can reveal information about the environment and the progenitor star. When a star explodes in vacuum, the first photons to escape from its surface appear as a brief, hours-long shock-breakout flare1,2, followed by a cooling phase of emission. However, for stars exploding within a distribution of dense, optically thick circumstellar material (CSM), the first photons escape from the material beyond the stellar edge and the duration of the initial flare can extend to several days, during which the escaping emission indicates photospheric heating3. Early serendipitous observations2,4 that lacked ultraviolet (UV) data were unable to determine whether the early emission is heating or cooling and hence the nature of the early explosion event. Here we report UV spectra of the nearby SN 2023ixf in the galaxy Messier 101 (M101). Using the UV data as well as a comprehensive set of further multiwavelength observations, we temporally resolve the emergence of the explosion shock from a thick medium heated by the SN emission. We derive a reliable bolometric light curve that indicates that the shock breaks out from a dense layer with a radius substantially larger than typical supergiants.",

author = "Zimmerman, {E. A.} and I. Irani and P. Chen and A. Gal-Yam and S. Schulze and Perley, {D. A.} and J. Sollerman and Filippenko, {A. V.} and T. Shenar and O. Yaron and S. Shahaf and Bruch, {R. J.} and Ofek, {E. O.} and {De Cia}, A. and Brink, {T. G.} and Y. Yang and Vasylyev, {S. S.} and {Ben Ami}, S. and M. Aubert and A. Badash and Bloom, {J. S.} and Brown, {P. J.} and K. De and G. Dimitriadis and C. Fransson and C. Fremling and K. Hinds and A. Horesh and Johansson, {J. P.} and Kasliwal, {M. M.} and Kulkarni, {S. R.} and D. Kushnir and C. Martin and M. Matuzewski and McGurk, {R. C.} and Miller, {A. A.} and J. Morag and Neil, {J. D.} and Nugent, {P. E.} and Post, {R. S.} and Prusinski, {N. Z.} and Y. Qin and A. Raichoor and R. Riddle and M. Rowe and B. Rusholme and I. Sfaradi and Sjoberg, {K. M.} and M. Soumagnac and Stein, {R. D.} and Strotjohann, {N. L.} and Terwel, {J. H.} and T. Wasserman and J. Wise and A. Wold and L. Yan and K. Zhang",

note = "We thank B. Katz and E. Waxman for their advice on the physical interpretation of SN 2023ixf. This work is based on observations obtained with HST as part of proposal GO-17205 (PI E. Zimmerman). Based in part on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin 48-inch telescope and the 60-inch telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) project. The ZTF is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant AST-2034437 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Oskar Klein Centre at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt University, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Trinity College Dublin, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, IN2P3, University of Warwick, Ruhr University Bochum and Northwestern University. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC and UW. The SED Machine is based on work supported by the NSF under grant 1106171. Based in part on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), owned in collaboration by the University of Turku and Aarhus University and operated jointly by Aarhus University, the University of Turku and the University of Oslo (representing Denmark, Finland and Norway, respectively), the University of Iceland and Stockholm University, at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. These data were obtained with ALFOSC, which is provided by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (IAA) under a joint agreement with the University of Copenhagen and NOT. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); the Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. This work includes observations obtained at the Liverpool Telescope, which is operated on the island of La Palma by Liverpool John Moores University in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, with financial support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. A major upgrade of the Kast spectrograph on the Shane 3-m telescope at Lick Observatory, led by B. Holden, was made possible through generous gifts from the Heising-Simons Foundation, William and Marina Kast and the University of California Observatories. Research at Lick Observatory is partially supported by a generous gift from Google. This work benefited from the OPTICON telescope access programme (https://www.astro-opticon.org/index.html), financed from the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 101004719. Based in part on observations made with the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) operated on the island of La Palma by the Fundaci{\'o}n Galileo Galilei of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. This research used data obtained with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). DESI construction and operations is managed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This material is based upon work supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High-Energy Physics, under contract no. DE–AC02–05CH11231, and by the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility under the same contract. Additional support for DESI was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Astronomical Sciences under contract no. AST-0950945 to the NSF{\textquoteright}s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory; the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA); the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT); the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain (MICINN), and by the DESI Member Institutions: www.desi.lbl.gov/collaborating-institutions. The DESI collaboration is honoured to be permitted to conduct scientific research on Iolkam Du{\textquoteright}ag (Kitt Peak), a mountain with particular significance to the Tohono O{\textquoteright}odham Nation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the US National Science Foundation, the US Department of Energy, or any of the listed funding agencies. We made use of IRAF, which is distributed by the NSF NOIR Lab. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, through both the Data-Driven Investigator Program and a dedicated grant, provided critical funding for SkyPortal. A.V.F.{\textquoteright}s supernova group at University of California, Berkeley has been supported by S. Nelson, G. and C. Bengier, C. and S. Winslow, S. Robertson, B. and K. Wood, the Christopher R. Redlich Fund and numerous other donors. T.S. acknowledges support from the Comunidad de Madrid (2022-T1/TIC-24117). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2024.",

year = "2024",

month = mar,

day = "28",

doi = "10.1038/s41586-024-07116-6",

language = "English",

volume = "627",

pages = "759--762",

journal = "Nature",

issn = "0028-0836",

publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",

number = "8005",

}

Zimmerman, EA , Irani, I , Chen, P , Gal-Yam, A, Schulze, S, Perley, DA, Sollerman, J, Filippenko, AV, Shenar, T, Yaron, O , Shahaf, S, Bruch, RJ, Ofek, EO, De Cia, A, Brink, TG, Yang, Y, Vasylyev, SS, Ben Ami, S, Aubert, M, Badash, A, Bloom, JS, Brown, PJ, De, K, Dimitriadis, G, Fransson, C, Fremling, C, Hinds, K, Horesh, A, Johansson, JP, Kasliwal, MM, Kulkarni, SR, Kushnir, D, Martin, C, Matuzewski, M, McGurk, RC, Miller, AA, Morag, J, Neil, JD, Nugent, PE, Post, RS, Prusinski, NZ, Qin, Y, Raichoor, A, Riddle, R, Rowe, M, Rusholme, B, Sfaradi, I, Sjoberg, KM, Soumagnac, M, Stein, RD, Strotjohann, NL, Terwel, JH, Wasserman, T, Wise, J, Wold, A, Yan, L & Zhang, K 2024, 'The complex circumstellar environment of supernova 2023ixf', Nature, vol. 627, no. 8005, pp. 759-762. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07116-6

TY - JOUR

T1 - The complex circumstellar environment of supernova 2023ixf

AU - Zimmerman, E. A.

AU - Irani, I.

AU - Chen, P.

AU - Gal-Yam, A.

AU - Schulze, S.

AU - Perley, D. A.

AU - Sollerman, J.

AU - Filippenko, A. V.

AU - Shenar, T.

AU - Yaron, O.

AU - Shahaf, S.

AU - Bruch, R. J.

AU - Ofek, E. O.

AU - De Cia, A.

AU - Brink, T. G.

AU - Yang, Y.

AU - Vasylyev, S. S.

AU - Ben Ami, S.

AU - Aubert, M.

AU - Badash, A.

AU - Bloom, J. S.

AU - Brown, P. J.

AU - De, K.

AU - Dimitriadis, G.

AU - Fransson, C.

AU - Fremling, C.

AU - Hinds, K.

AU - Horesh, A.

AU - Johansson, J. P.

AU - Kasliwal, M. M.

AU - Kulkarni, S. R.

AU - Kushnir, D.

AU - Martin, C.

AU - Matuzewski, M.

AU - McGurk, R. C.

AU - Miller, A. A.

AU - Morag, J.

AU - Neil, J. D.

AU - Nugent, P. E.

AU - Post, R. S.

AU - Prusinski, N. Z.

AU - Qin, Y.

AU - Raichoor, A.

AU - Riddle, R.

AU - Rowe, M.

AU - Rusholme, B.

AU - Sfaradi, I.

AU - Sjoberg, K. M.

AU - Soumagnac, M.

AU - Stein, R. D.

AU - Strotjohann, N. L.

AU - Terwel, J. H.

AU - Wasserman, T.

AU - Wise, J.

AU - Wold, A.

AU - Yan, L.

AU - Zhang, K.

N1 - We thank B. Katz and E. Waxman for their advice on the physical interpretation of SN 2023ixf. This work is based on observations obtained with HST as part of proposal GO-17205 (PI E. Zimmerman). Based in part on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin 48-inch telescope and the 60-inch telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) project. The ZTF is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant AST-2034437 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Oskar Klein Centre at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt University, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Trinity College Dublin, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, IN2P3, University of Warwick, Ruhr University Bochum and Northwestern University. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC and UW. The SED Machine is based on work supported by the NSF under grant 1106171. Based in part on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), owned in collaboration by the University of Turku and Aarhus University and operated jointly by Aarhus University, the University of Turku and the University of Oslo (representing Denmark, Finland and Norway, respectively), the University of Iceland and Stockholm University, at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. These data were obtained with ALFOSC, which is provided by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (IAA) under a joint agreement with the University of Copenhagen and NOT. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); the Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. This work includes observations obtained at the Liverpool Telescope, which is operated on the island of La Palma by Liverpool John Moores University in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, with financial support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. A major upgrade of the Kast spectrograph on the Shane 3-m telescope at Lick Observatory, led by B. Holden, was made possible through generous gifts from the Heising-Simons Foundation, William and Marina Kast and the University of California Observatories. Research at Lick Observatory is partially supported by a generous gift from Google. This work benefited from the OPTICON telescope access programme (https://www.astro-opticon.org/index.html), financed from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 101004719. Based in part on observations made with the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) operated on the island of La Palma by the Fundación Galileo Galilei of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. This research used data obtained with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). DESI construction and operations is managed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This material is based upon work supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High-Energy Physics, under contract no. DE–AC02–05CH11231, and by the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility under the same contract. Additional support for DESI was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Astronomical Sciences under contract no. AST-0950945 to the NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory; the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA); the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT); the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain (MICINN), and by the DESI Member Institutions: www.desi.lbl.gov/collaborating-institutions. The DESI collaboration is honoured to be permitted to conduct scientific research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak), a mountain with particular significance to the Tohono O’odham Nation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the US National Science Foundation, the US Department of Energy, or any of the listed funding agencies. We made use of IRAF, which is distributed by the NSF NOIR Lab. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, through both the Data-Driven Investigator Program and a dedicated grant, provided critical funding for SkyPortal. A.V.F.’s supernova group at University of California, Berkeley has been supported by S. Nelson, G. and C. Bengier, C. and S. Winslow, S. Robertson, B. and K. Wood, the Christopher R. Redlich Fund and numerous other donors. T.S. acknowledges support from the Comunidad de Madrid (2022-T1/TIC-24117). Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2024.

PY - 2024/3/28

Y1 - 2024/3/28

N2 - The early evolution of a supernova (SN) can reveal information about the environment and the progenitor star. When a star explodes in vacuum, the first photons to escape from its surface appear as a brief, hours-long shock-breakout flare1,2, followed by a cooling phase of emission. However, for stars exploding within a distribution of dense, optically thick circumstellar material (CSM), the first photons escape from the material beyond the stellar edge and the duration of the initial flare can extend to several days, during which the escaping emission indicates photospheric heating3. Early serendipitous observations2,4 that lacked ultraviolet (UV) data were unable to determine whether the early emission is heating or cooling and hence the nature of the early explosion event. Here we report UV spectra of the nearby SN 2023ixf in the galaxy Messier 101 (M101). Using the UV data as well as a comprehensive set of further multiwavelength observations, we temporally resolve the emergence of the explosion shock from a thick medium heated by the SN emission. We derive a reliable bolometric light curve that indicates that the shock breaks out from a dense layer with a radius substantially larger than typical supergiants.

AB - The early evolution of a supernova (SN) can reveal information about the environment and the progenitor star. When a star explodes in vacuum, the first photons to escape from its surface appear as a brief, hours-long shock-breakout flare1,2, followed by a cooling phase of emission. However, for stars exploding within a distribution of dense, optically thick circumstellar material (CSM), the first photons escape from the material beyond the stellar edge and the duration of the initial flare can extend to several days, during which the escaping emission indicates photospheric heating3. Early serendipitous observations2,4 that lacked ultraviolet (UV) data were unable to determine whether the early emission is heating or cooling and hence the nature of the early explosion event. Here we report UV spectra of the nearby SN 2023ixf in the galaxy Messier 101 (M101). Using the UV data as well as a comprehensive set of further multiwavelength observations, we temporally resolve the emergence of the explosion shock from a thick medium heated by the SN emission. We derive a reliable bolometric light curve that indicates that the shock breaks out from a dense layer with a radius substantially larger than typical supergiants.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85188894094&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41586-024-07116-6

DO - 10.1038/s41586-024-07116-6

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85188894094

SN - 0028-0836

VL - 627

SP - 759

EP - 762

JO - Nature

JF - Nature

IS - 8005

ER -

The complex circumstellar environment of supernova 2023ixf

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