Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

A relativistic type Ibc supernova without a detected γ-ray burst

Nature volume 463, pages 513–515 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Long duration γ-ray bursts (GRBs) mark1 the explosive death of some massive stars and are a rare sub-class of type Ibc supernovae. They are distinguished by the production of an energetic and collimated relativistic outflow powered2 by a central engine (an accreting black hole or neutron star). Observationally, this outflow is manifested3 in the pulse of γ-rays and a long-lived radio afterglow. Until now, central-engine-driven supernovae have been discovered exclusively through their γ-ray emission, yet it is expected4 that a larger population goes undetected because of limited satellite sensitivity or beaming of the collimated emission away from our line of sight. In this framework, the recovery of undetected GRBs may be possible through radio searches5,6 for type Ibc supernovae with relativistic outflows. Here we report the discovery of luminous radio emission from the seemingly ordinary type Ibc SN 2009bb, which requires a substantial relativistic outflow powered by a central engine. A comparison with our radio survey of type Ibc supernovae reveals that the fraction harbouring central engines is low, about one per cent, measured independently from, but consistent with, the inferred7 rate of nearby GRBs. Independently, a second mildly relativistic supernova has been reported8.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Radio observations of the nearest massive star explosions.
Figure 2: Synchrotron self-absorption model fits to the SN 2009bb radio spectra.
Figure 3: Radio properties of the nearest massive star explosions directly reveal the blast-wave velocities.
Figure 4: Blast-wave velocity and energy for massive star explosions.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Woosley, S. E. & Bloom, J. S. The supernova gamma-ray burst connection. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 44, 507–556 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. MacFadyen, A. I., Woosley, S. E. & Heger, A. Supernovae, jets, and collapsars. Astrophys. J. 550, 410–425 (2001)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Piran, T. Gamma-ray bursts and the fireball model. Phys. Rep. 314, 575–667 (1999)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Perna, R. & Loeb, A. Constraining the beaming of gamma-ray bursts with radio surveys. Astrophys. J. 509, L85–L88 (1998)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Berger, E., Kulkarni, S. R., Frail, D. A. & Soderberg, A. M. A radio survey of type Ib and Ic supernovae: searching for engine-driven supernovae. Astrophys. J. 599, 408–418 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Soderberg, A. M., Nakar, E., Berger, E. & Kulkarni, S. R. Late-time radio observations of 68 type Ibc supernovae: strong constraints on off-axis gamma-ray bursts. Astrophys. J. 638, 930–937 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Soderberg, A. M. et al. Relativistic ejecta from X-ray flash XRF 060218 and the rate of cosmic explosions. Nature 442, 1014–1017 (2006)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Paragi, Z. et al. A mildly relativistic radio jet from the otherwise normal type Ic supernova 2007gr. Nature 10.1038/nature08713 (this issue)

  9. Pignata, G. et al. in Probing Stellar Populations Out to the Distant Universe: Cefalu 2008 (eds Giobbi, G. et al.) 551–554 (AIP Conf. Proc., Vol. 1111, American Institute of Physics, 2009)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Pignata, G., Maza, J., Hamuy, M., Antezana, R. & Gonzalez, L. et al. Supernova 2009bb in NGC 3278. Cent. Bur. Electron. Telegr. 1731, 1 (2009)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Stritzinger, M., Philips, M. M., Morrell, N., Salgado, F. & Folatelli, G. Supernova 2009bb in NGC 3278. Cent. Bur. Electron. Telegr. 1751, 1 (2009)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Soderberg, A. M. The Many Facets of Cosmic Explosions. PhD thesis, Caltech (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Kulkarni, S. R. et al. Radio emission from the unusual supernova 1998bw and its association with the gamma-ray burst of 25 April 1998. Nature 395, 663–669 (1998)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Chevalier, R. A. Synchrotron self-absorption in radio supernovae. Astrophys. J. 499, 810 (1998)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Li, Z. & Chevalier, R. A. Radio supernova SN 1998BW and its relation to GRB 980425. Astrophys. J. 526, 716–726 (1999)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Soderberg, A. M. et al. The sub-energetic γ-ray burst GRB 031203 as a cosmic analogue to the nearby GRB 980425. Nature 430, 648–650 (2004)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Chevalier, R. A. & Fransson, C. Circumstellar emission from type Ib and Ic supernovae. Astrophys. J. 651, 381–391 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Readhead, A. C. S. Equipartition brightness temperature and the inverse Compton catastrophe. Astrophys. J. 426, 51–59 (1994)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Tan, J. C., Matzner, C. D. & McKee, C. F. Trans-relativistic blast waves in supernovae as gamma-ray burst progenitors. Astrophys. J. 551, 946–972 (2001)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Hurley, K. et al. in Gamma-Ray Burst: Sixth Huntsville Symposium (eds Meegan, C., Kouveliotou, C. & Gehrels, N.) 55–57 (AIP Conf. Proc., Vol. 1133, American Institute of Physics, 2009)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Pian, E. et al. BEPPOSAX observations of GRB 980425: detection of the prompt event and monitoring of the error box. Astrophys. J. 536, 778–787 (2000)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Cappellaro, E., Evans, R. & Turatto, M. A new determination of supernova rates and a comparison with indicators for galactic star formation. Astron. Astrophys. 351, 459–466 (1999)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Dahlen, T. et al. High-redshift supernova rates. Astrophys. J. 613, 189–199 (2004)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Levesque, E. et al. The high metallicity explosion environment of SN 2009bb. Preprint at 〈http://ArXiv.org/abs/0908.2818〉 (2009)

  25. Woosley, S. E. & Heger, A. The progenitor stars of gamma-ray bursts. Astrophys. J. 637, 914–921 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  26. Modjaz, M. et al. Measured metallicities at the sites of nearby broad-lined type Ic supernovae and implications for the supernovae gamma-ray burst connection. Astron. J. 135, 1136–1150 (2008)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Law, N. M. et al. The Palomar Transient Factory: system overview, performance and first results. Preprint at 〈http://ArXiv.org/abs/0906.5350〉 (2009)

  28. Kaiser, N. et al. Pan-STARRS: a large synoptic survey telescope array. Proc. SPIE. 4386, 154–164 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Perley, R. A., Napier, P. J. & Butler, B. J. The Expanded Very Large Array: goals, progress, and plans. Proc. SPIE. 5489, 784–795 (2004)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  30. Blandford, R. D. & McKee, C. F. Fluid dynamics of relativistic blast waves. Phys. Fluids. 19, 1130–1138 (1976)

    Article  ADS  MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The VLA is operated by the NRAO, a facility of the NSF operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. GMRT is run by the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with NASA. A.M.S. and O.F. acknowledge support by NASA through Hubble and GSRP grants, respectively. E.M.L. is funded through a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship. R.J.F. is a Clay fellow. R.A.C. and R.P.K. acknowledge support through NASA and NSF grants. G.P. and M.H. acknowledge support from FONDECYT, Iniciativa Cientifica Milenio, FONDAP and CONICYT. A.R. and S.C. are funded by an 11th Five Year Plan Project.

Author Contributions All authors contributed extensively to the work presented in this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS-51, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA ,

    A. M. Soderberg, A. Copete, E. M. Levesque, J. E. Grindlay, P. Challis, R. J. Foley, R. P. Kirshner & M. A. P. Torres

  2. Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400 005, India

    S. Chakraborti & A. Ray

  3. Departamento de Astronomi'a, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 36-D, Santiago, Chile,

    G. Pignata & M. Hamuy

  4. Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, PO Box 400325, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA,

    R. A. Chevalier & O. Fox

  5. Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7K 7B4 ,

    P. Chandra

  6. Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Epping 2121, Australia

    M. H. Wieringa

  7. University of Alabama, Huntsville, Alabama 35899, USA ,

    V. Chaplin & V. Connaughton

  8. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA ,

    S. D. Barthelmy

  9. Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3,

    M. F. Bietenholz

  10. Hartebeestehoek Radio Observatory, PO Box 443, Krugersdorp, 1740, South Africa ,

    M. F. Bietenholz

  11. Institute of Astronomy, RAS, Pyatnitskaya 48, Moscow 119017, Russia ,

    N. Chugai

  12. Las Campanas Observatory, Carnegie Observatories, Casilla 601, La Serena, Chile ,

    M. D. Stritzinger

  13. Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Copenhagen, Denmark ,

    M. D. Stritzinger

  14. Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden,

    C. Fransson

  15. Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA ,

    E. M. Levesque

  16. Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA ,

    P. A. Milne

Authors
  1. A. M. Soderberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. S. Chakraborti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. G. Pignata
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. R. A. Chevalier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. P. Chandra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. A. Ray
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. M. H. Wieringa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. A. Copete
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. V. Chaplin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. V. Connaughton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. S. D. Barthelmy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. M. F. Bietenholz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. N. Chugai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. M. D. Stritzinger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. M. Hamuy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  16. C. Fransson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  17. O. Fox
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  18. E. M. Levesque
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  19. J. E. Grindlay
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  20. P. Challis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  21. R. J. Foley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  22. R. P. Kirshner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  23. P. A. Milne
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  24. M. A. P. Torres
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. M. Soderberg.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Notes and Data, Supplementary References, Supplementary Tables 1-3 and Supplementary Figures 1-2 with Legends (PDF 496 kb)

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Soderberg, A., Chakraborti, S., Pignata, G. et al. A relativistic type Ibc supernova without a detected γ-ray burst. Nature 463, 513–515 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08714

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08714

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing