A surge of light at the birth of a supernova

SMITH, N.; NOMOTO, K.; DE JAEGER, T.; ZHENG, W.; TANAKA, M.; ORELLANA, M.; GARCÍA, F.; SMITH, N.; NOMOTO, K.; DE JAEGER, T.; ZHENG, W.; TANAKA, M.; ORELLANA, M.; GARCÍA, F.; PERLEY, D. A.; KUMAR, S.; BRINK, T. G.; MAEDA, K.; SHIVVERS, I.; BUSO, V.; MORIYA, T. J.; VAN DYK, S. D.; CENKO, S. B.; BERSTEN, M. C.; FILIPPENKO, A. V.; PERLEY, D. A.; SÁNCHEZ, J. L.; KUMAR, S.; BENVENUTO, O. G.; BRINK, T. G.; FOLATELLI, G.; MAEDA, K.; SHIVVERS, I.; BUSO, V.; MORIYA, T. J.; VAN DYK, S. D.; CENKO, S. B.; BERSTEN, M. C.; FILIPPENKO, A. V.; SÁNCHEZ, J. L.; BENVENUTO, O. G.; FOLATELLI, G.

NATURE

NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2018 vol. 554 p. 497 - 499

0028-0836

It is difficult to establish the properties of massive stars thatexplode as supernovae. The electromagnetic emission during the firstminutes to hours after the emergence of the shock from the stellarsurface conveys important information about the final evolution andstructure of the exploding star. However, the unpredictable nature ofsupernova events hinders the detection of this brief initial phase. Herewe report the serendipitous discovery of a newly born, normal type IIbsupernova (SN 2016gkg), which reveals a rapid brightening at opticalwavelengths of about 40 magnitudes per day. The very frequent samplingof the observations allowed us to study in detail the outermoststructure of the progenitor of the supernova and the physics of theemergence of the shock. We develop hydrodynamical models of theexplosion that naturally account for the complete evolution of thesupernova over distinct phases regulated by different physicalprocesses. This result suggests that it is appropriate to decouple thetreatment of the shock propagation from the unknown mechanism thattriggers the explosion.