Early-type galaxies with core collapse supernovae
Abstract
Aims: It is widely accepted that the progenitors of core collapse SNe are young massive stars and therefore their host galaxies are mostly spiral or irregular galaxies dominated by a young stellar population. Surprisingly, among morphologically classified hosts of core collapse SNe, we find 22 cases where the host has been classified as an Elliptical or S0 galaxy.
Methods: To clarify this apparent contradiction, we carry out a detailed morphological study and an extensive literature search for additional information on the sample objects.
Results: Our results are as follows: 1. Of 22 "early type" objects, 17 are in fact misclassified spiral galaxies, one is a misclassified irregular, and one is a misclassified ring galaxy. 2. Of the 3 objects maintaining the early type classification, one (NGC 2768) is a suspected merger remnant, another (NGC 4589) is definitely a merger, and the third (NGC 2274) is in close interaction. The presence of some amount of young stellar population in these galaxies is therefore not unexpected.
Conclusions: These results confirm the presence of a limited, but significant, number of core collapse SNe in galaxies generally classified as early-type. In all cases, anyway, there are independent indicators of the presence in host galaxies of recent star formation due to merging or gravitational interaction.
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- September 2008
- DOI:
- 10.1051/0004-6361:200809817
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0806.4269
- Bibcode:
- 2008A&A...488..523H
- Keywords:
-
- galaxies: general;
- supernovae: general;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 12 pages, 1 figure, 1 table, accepted for publication in A&