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arXiv · astro-ph/0205042

Jet triggered Type Ia supernovae in radio-galaxies?

Abstract

We report the serendipitous discovery of a supernova (SN) in the nearby radio-galaxy 3C 78. Observations obtained with the STIS spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope show, at a distance of 0.54 arcsec (300 pc) from the galaxy nucleus, a second bright source, not present in previous images. As this source was fortuitously covered by the spectrograph slit its spectrum was obtained and it is characteristic of a Type Ia SN. This SN is closely aligned with the radio-jet of 3C 78. Analysis of historical records shows that such a close association between jet and supernova occurred in 6 of the 14 reported SNe in radio-galaxies. The probability that this results from a random distribution of SN in the host galaxy is less than 0.05%. We then argue that jets might trigger supernova explosions.

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BibTeXRIS

Alessandro Capetti. 2002-06-27. Jet triggered Type Ia supernovae in radio-galaxies?. https://doi.org/10.1086/342362

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