Search

We present high angular resolution (∼80 mas) ALMA continuum images of the SN 1987A system, together with CO J = 2 1, J = 6 5, and SiO J = 5 4 to J = 7 6 images, which clearly resolve the ejecta (dust continuum and molecules) and ring (synchrotron continuum) components. Dust in the ejecta is asymmetric and clumpy, and overall the dust fills the spatial void seen in Hα images, filling that region with material from heavier elements. The dust clumps generally fill the space where CO J = 6 5 is fainter, tentatively indicating that these dust clumps and CO are locationally and chemically linked. In these regions, carbonaceous dust grains might have formed after dissociation of CO. The dust grains would have cooled by radiation, and subsequent collisions of grains with gas would also cool the gas, suppressing the CO J = 6 5 intensity. The data show a dust peak spatially coincident with the molecular hole seen in previous ALMA CO J = 2 1 and SiO J = 5 4 images. That dust peak, combined with CO and SiO line spectra, suggests that the dust and gas could be at higher temperatures than the surrounding material, though higher density cannot be totally excluded. One of the possibilities is that a compact source provides additional heat at that location. Fits to the far-infrared–millimeter spectral energy distribution give ejecta dust temperatures of 18–23 K. We revise the ejecta dust mass to Mdust = 0.2–0.4 for carbon or silicate grains, or a maximum of <0.7 for a mixture of grain species, using the predicted nucleosynthesis yields as an upper limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it has faded by a factor of ∼107, SN 1987A is still bright enough to be observed in almost every band of the electromagnetic spectrum. Today, the bolometric luminosity of the debris is dominated by a far-infrared (∼200μm) continuum from ∼0.5 M⊙ of dust grains in the interior debris. The dust is heated by UV, optical, and near-infrared (NIR) emission resulting from radioactive energy deposition by 44Ti. The optical light of the supernova debris is now dominated by illumination of the debris by X-rays resulting from the impact of the outer supernova envelope with an equatorial ring (ER) of gas that was expelled some 20,000 years before the supernova explosion. X-ray and optical observations trace a complex system of shocks resulting from this impact, whereas radio observations trace synchrotron radiation from relativistic electrons accelerated by these shocks. The luminosity of the remnant is dominated by an NIR (∼20μm) continuum from dust grains in the ER heated by collisions with ions in the X-ray emitting gas. With the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), we can observe the interior debris at millimeter/submillimeter wavelengths, which are not absorbed by the interior dust. The ALMA observations reveal bright emission lines from rotational transitions of CO and SiO lines that provide a new window into the interior structure of the supernova debris. Optical, NIR, and ALMA observations all indicate strongly asymmetric ejecta. Intensive searches have failed to yield any evidence for the compact object expected to reside at the center of the remnant. The current upper limit to the luminosity of such an object is a few tens of solar luminosities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]