* Astronomy

Title: LOSS'S First Supernova: New Limits on the "Impostor" SN 1997bs
Author: Scott M. Adams, C.S. Kochanek

We present new, late-time Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope observations of the archetypal SN impostor SN 1997bs. We show that SN 1997bs remains much fainter than its progenitor, ruling out the canonical picture of late-time obscuration by dust forming in a shell ejected during the transient. The possibility that the star survived cloaked behind a dusty, steady wind is also disfavoured. The simplest explanation is that SN 1997bs was a subluminous Type IIn SN, although it is impossible to rule out the possibility that the star survived, but with a significantly decreased intrinsic luminosity.

Read more (16041kb, PDF)