| Dust in supernovae - as seen by JWST |
| Tamás Szalai |
| SZTE Fizikai Intézet |
| Core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe), especially Type IIP ones - the predominant CCSN subclass thought to originate from red supergiant progenitors with their massive hydrogen envelope intact - have long been considered to significantly contribute to the cosmic dust budget. Models of expanding ejecta predict 0.1-1 solar masses of dust in SNe IIP. New dust cools quickly and is therefore detectable at longer (mid-IR) wavelengths. However, only a handful of nearby SNe IIP have shown direct observational evidence for dust condensation (based primarily on Spitzer data), and dust masses (generally limited to early epochs, and to >500 K temperatures) have been 2-3 orders of magnitude smaller than theoretical predictions. At the same time, more recent observations of Galactic SN remnants and the very nearby (~50 kpc) SN 1987A have revealed that massive cooler dust reservoirs may form over years or decades in SNe. As demonstrated by our recent results, James Webb Space Telescope finally allows hidden cool (~100-200 K) dust reservoirs in extragalactic SNe beyond SN 1987A to be revealed and to help fill the gap currently existing in the dust-formation history for SNe. Results from our observations also allow us to measure the mass of dust observed at mid-IR wavelengths, and to constrain the dust composition. |