An Independent Determination of the Distance to Supernova SN 1987A by Means of the Light Echo AT 2019xis
An Independent Determination of the Distance to Supernova SN 1987A by Means of the Light Echo AT 2019xis
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DOI：
10.3847/2041-8213/acd37c
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发表时间：
2023-05
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
A. Cikota;Jiachen Ding;Lifan Wang;D. Baade;S. Cikota;P. Höflich;J. Maund;Ping Yang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
A. Cikota;Jiachen Ding;Lifan Wang;D. Baade;S. Cikota;P. Höflich;J. Maund;Ping Yang
精确地确定天体物理对象的距离对于了解其固有亮度和大小至关重要。SN 1987A的距离以前已经用扩展光球法测量过，并使用了由窄紫外发射线的光曲线得出的绝对尺寸的星周环的角尺寸，报道的距离范围为46.77至55 kpc。在本研究中，我们采用Ding等人提出的光回波辐射传递模型，利用SN 1987A的光回波AT 2019xis的光度和成像偏振观测，独立确定了到SN 1987A的距离。根据星际偏振和消光校正，我们得到了到SN 1987A的距离在49.09±2.16 kpc到59.39±3.27 kpc之间，与文献值一致。这项研究展示了利用光回波作为确定银河系天体物理物体距离的工具的潜力，最高可达千秒差距。
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.