TY - JOUR
T1 - Probing gas and dust in the tidal tail of NGC 5221 with the type Ia supernova iPTF16abc
AU - Ferretti, R.
AU - Amanullah, R.
AU - Goobar, A.
AU - Petrushevska, T.
AU - Borthakur, Sanchayeeta
AU - Bulla, M.
AU - Fox, O.
AU - Freeland, E.
AU - Fremling, C.
AU - Hangard, L.
AU - Hayes, M.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements. We thank Gregory Hallenbeck for his help with extracting ALFALFA data, David Martinez-Delgado, Darach Watson and Brice Menard for their helpful insights and Jesper Sollerman and Avishay Gal-Yam for their comments. R.A. and A.G. acknowledge support from the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Space Board. The Oskar Klein Centre is funded by the Swedish Research Council. This work is based on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, operated by the Nordic Optical Telescope Scientific Association at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. This work makes use of observations from the LCOGT network. The Pan-STARRS1 Surveys (PS1) and the PS1 public science archive have been made possible through contributions by the Institute for Astronomy, the University of Hawaii, the Pan-STARRS Project Office, the Max-Planck Society and its participating institutes, the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, The Johns Hopkins University, Durham University, the University of Edinburgh, the Queen’s University Belfast, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network Incorporated, the National Central University of Taiwan, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant No. NNX08AR22G issued through the Planetary Science Division of the NASA Science Mission Directorate, the National Science Foundation Grant No. AST-1238877, the University of Maryland, Eotvos Lorand University (ELTE), the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© ESO, 2017.
PY - 2017/10/1
Y1 - 2017/10/1
N2 - Context. Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) can be used to address numerous questions in astrophysics and cosmology. Due to their well known spectral and photometric properties, SNe Ia are well suited to study gas and dust along the lines-of-sight to the explosions. For example, narrow Na I D and Ca II H&K absorption lines can be studied easily, because of the well-defined spectral continuum of SNe Ia around these features. Aims. We aim to study the gas and dust along the line-of-sight to iPTF16abc, which occurred in an unusual location, in a tidal arm, 80 kpc from centre of the galaxy NGC 5221. Methods. Using a time-series of high-resolution spectra, we have examined narrow Na I D and Ca II H&K absorption features for variations in time, which would be indicative for circumstellar (CS) matter. Furthermore, we have taken advantage of the well known photometric properties of SNe Ia to determine reddening due to dust along the line-of-sight. Results. From the lack of variations in Na I D and Ca II H&K, we determine that none of the detected absorption features originate from the CS medium of iPTF16abc. While the Na I D and Ca II H&K absorption is found to be optically thick, a negligible amount of reddening points to a small column of interstellar dust. Conclusions. We find that the gas along the line-of-sight to iPTF16abc is typical of what might be found in the interstellar medium (ISM) within a galaxy. It suggests that we are observing gas that has been tidally stripped during an interaction of NGC 5221 with one of its neighbouring galaxies in the past ~ 109 yr. In the future, the gas clouds could become the locations of star formation. On a longer time scale, the clouds might diffuse, enriching the circum-galactic medium (CGM) with metals. The gas profile along the line-of-sight should be useful for future studies of the dynamics of the galaxy group containing NGC 5221.
AB - Context. Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) can be used to address numerous questions in astrophysics and cosmology. Due to their well known spectral and photometric properties, SNe Ia are well suited to study gas and dust along the lines-of-sight to the explosions. For example, narrow Na I D and Ca II H&K absorption lines can be studied easily, because of the well-defined spectral continuum of SNe Ia around these features. Aims. We aim to study the gas and dust along the line-of-sight to iPTF16abc, which occurred in an unusual location, in a tidal arm, 80 kpc from centre of the galaxy NGC 5221. Methods. Using a time-series of high-resolution spectra, we have examined narrow Na I D and Ca II H&K absorption features for variations in time, which would be indicative for circumstellar (CS) matter. Furthermore, we have taken advantage of the well known photometric properties of SNe Ia to determine reddening due to dust along the line-of-sight. Results. From the lack of variations in Na I D and Ca II H&K, we determine that none of the detected absorption features originate from the CS medium of iPTF16abc. While the Na I D and Ca II H&K absorption is found to be optically thick, a negligible amount of reddening points to a small column of interstellar dust. Conclusions. We find that the gas along the line-of-sight to iPTF16abc is typical of what might be found in the interstellar medium (ISM) within a galaxy. It suggests that we are observing gas that has been tidally stripped during an interaction of NGC 5221 with one of its neighbouring galaxies in the past ~ 109 yr. In the future, the gas clouds could become the locations of star formation. On a longer time scale, the clouds might diffuse, enriching the circum-galactic medium (CGM) with metals. The gas profile along the line-of-sight should be useful for future studies of the dynamics of the galaxy group containing NGC 5221.
KW - Galaxies: ISM
KW - Galaxies: individual: NGC 5221
KW - Galaxies: interactions
KW - Supernovae: individual: iPTF16abc
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85032032119&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85032032119&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1051/0004-6361/201731409
DO - 10.1051/0004-6361/201731409
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85032032119
SN - 0004-6361
VL - 606
JO - Astronomy and Astrophysics
JF - Astronomy and Astrophysics
M1 - A111
ER -