Cikota, A. orcid.org/0000-0001-7101-9831, Ding, J. orcid.org/0000-0003-4928-6698, Wang, L. orcid.org/0000-0001-7092-9374 et al. (5 more authors) (2023) An independent determination of the distance to supernova SN 1987A by means of the light echo AT 2019xis. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 949 (1). L9. ISSN 2041-8205
Abstract
Accurate distance determination to astrophysical objects is essential for the understanding of their intrinsic brightness and size. The distance to SN 1987A has been previously measured by the expanding photosphere method and by using the angular size of the circumstellar rings with absolute sizes derived from light curves of narrow UV emission lines, with reported distances ranging from 46.77 to 55 kpc. In this study, we independently determined the distance to SN 1987A using photometry and imaging polarimetry observations of AT 2019xis, a light echo of SN 1987A, by adopting a radiative transfer model of the light echo developed in Ding et al. We obtained distances to SN 1987A in the range from 49.09 ± 2.16 kpc to 59.39 ± 3.27 kpc, depending on the interstellar polarization and extinction corrections, which are consistent with the literature values. This study demonstrates the potential of using light echoes as a tool for distance determination to astrophysical objects in the Milky Way, up to kiloparsec level scales.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 The Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Physics and Astronomy (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 05 Jun 2023 14:19 |
Last Modified: | 05 Jun 2023 14:19 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Astronomical Society |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.3847/2041-8213/acd37c |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:199736 |