The position of SN 1987A
C. Tegkelidis, J. Larsson, D. Alp

TL;DR
This paper precisely measures the position of SN 1987A using Hubble and Gaia data, estimating the supernova's compact object kick velocity and analyzing the ejecta and ring offsets with high accuracy.
Contribution
It provides the most accurate positional measurement of SN 1987A to date, combining multi-epoch HST imaging with Gaia data to refine the supernova's location and velocity estimates.
Findings
The supernova's position is determined with 21 mas accuracy.
The ejecta are offset from the ring center by 14 mas south and 16 mas east.
The estimated sky-plane kick velocity is approximately 399 km/s.
Abstract
The accurate positional measurement of Supernova (SN) 1987A is important for determining the kick velocity of its compact object and the velocities of the ejecta and various shock components. In this work, we perform absolute astrometry to determine the position of SN 1987A. We used multi-epoch Hubble Space Telescope imaging to model the early ejecta and the equatorial ring (ER). We combined our measurements and obtained the celestial coordinates in the International Celestial Reference System (ICRS) by registering the observations onto Gaia Data Release 3. The final average position of the different measurements is , (ICRS J2016). The early ejecta position is located 14 mas south and 16 mas east of the ER center, with the offset being significant at 96% confidence. The offset may…
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Taxonomy
TopicsGamma-ray bursts and supernovae · Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena · Neutrino Physics Research
