Light echoes from ancient supernovae in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Armin Rest, Nicholas B. Suntzeff (), Knut Olsen, Jose Luis Prieto, R. Chris Smith, Douglas L. Welch, Andrew Becker, Marcel Bergmann, Alejandro Clocchiatti, Kem Cook, Arti Garg, Mark Huber, Gajus Miknaitis, Dante Minniti, Sergei Nikolaev and Christopher Stubbs
Additional contact information
Armin Rest: National Optical Astronomy Observatory
Nicholas B. Suntzeff: National Optical Astronomy Observatory
Knut Olsen: National Optical Astronomy Observatory
Jose Luis Prieto: Ohio State University
R. Chris Smith: National Optical Astronomy Observatory
Douglas L. Welch: McMaster University
Andrew Becker: University of Washington
Marcel Bergmann: Gemini Observatory
Alejandro Clocchiatti: Pontifica Universidad Católica de Chile
Kem Cook: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Arti Garg: Harvard University
Mark Huber: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Gajus Miknaitis: University of Washington
Dante Minniti: Pontifica Universidad Católica de Chile
Sergei Nikolaev: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Christopher Stubbs: Harvard University

Nature, 2005, vol. 438, issue 7071, 1132-1134

Abstract: Catch up with Kepler We may soon be able to see the slight seen by Tycho and Kepler, but 400 years later. In 1940 Fritz Zwicky, the man who coined the term ‘supernova’ for massive star explosions, suggested that it should be possible to see echo light from historical supernovae centuries after the event. Data from the SuperMACHO survey, which is monitoring the millions of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud for the brightening associated with gravitational microlensing, show that Zwicky was spot on. Echoes have now been traced back to three positions where young supernova remnants appear, and ages have been estimated for two of them, at 610 and 410 years. This discovery opens up the prospect of finding echoes from the supernovae in our own Galaxy that were observed by Tycho and Kepler. Light from the echoes can be observed spectroscopically to determine what type of supernova exploded.

Date: 2005
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DOI: 10.1038/nature04365

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