2014/07/01 by Christa Gall, C. Gall, Jens Hjorth +14 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrobiology #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Cosmic dust #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Physics #Supernova #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/nature13558
published as Nature, Volume 511, Issue 7509, pp. 326-329 (17 July 2014) · 62 pages, 13 figures, 1 table. Author version of the Letter to Nature, published online July 9 2014 (Nature, 511, 7509, pp. 326-329 (2014)), prior to the final editorial changes to conform to Journal style; includes Methods and Extended Data Figures and the Supplementary Information. See published version http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v511/n7509/full/nature13558.html
openalex publication_date 2014/07/01 · arxiv created 2014/07/16 · arxiv updated 2014/07/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The origin of dust in galaxies is still a mystery. The majority of the refractory elements are produced in supernova explosions but it is unclear how and where dust grains condense and grow, and how they avoid destruction in the harsh environments of star-forming galaxies. The recent detection of 0.1-0.5 solar masses of dust in nearby supernova remnants suggests in situ dust formation, while other observations reveal very little dust in supernovae the first few years after explosion. Observations of the bright SN 2010jl have been interpreted as pre-existing dust, dust formation or no dust at all. Here we report the rapid (40-240 days) formation of dust in its dense circumstellar medium. The wavelength dependent extinction of this dust reveals the presence of very large (> 1 micron) grains, which are resistant to destructive processes. At later times (500-900 days), the near-IR thermal emission shows an accelerated growth in dust mass, marking the transition of the supernova from a circumstellar- to an ejecta-dominated source of dust. This provides the link between the early and late dust mass evolution in supernovae with dense circumstellar media.