The Astrophysical Journal, 767:166 (15pp), 2013 April 20

doi:10.1088/0004-637X/767/2/166

C 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

SN 2009js AT THE CROSSROADS BETWEEN NORMAL AND SUBLUMINOUS TYPE IIP
SUPERNOVAE: OPTICAL AND MID-INFRARED EVOLUTION
P. Gandhi1,2 , M. Yamanaka3,4,5 , M. Tanaka6 , T. Nozawa7 , K. S. Kawabata5 , I. Saviane8 , K. Maeda7 ,T. J. Moriya7,9,10 , T. Hattori11 , M. Sasada12 , and R. Itoh3

1 Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, chuo-ku, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5210, Japan
2 Department of Physics, Durham University, Durham DH1-3LE, UK
3 Department of Physical Science, Hiroshima University, Kagamiyama 1-3-1, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan
4 Kwasan Observatory, Kyoto University, 17-1 Kitakazan-ohmine-cho, Yamashina-ku, Kyoto 607-8471, Japan
5 Hiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan
6 National Astronomical Observatory, Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan
7 Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan
8 European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Santiago 19, Chile
9 Research Center for the Early Universe, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
10 Department of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
11 Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Hilo, HI 96720, USA
12 Department of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan

Received 2012 November 27; accepted 2013 March 4; published 2013 April 8

ABSTRACT
We present a study of SN 2009js in NGC 918. Multi-band Kanata optical photometry covering the first ∼120 days
shows the source to be a Type IIP SN. Reddening is dominated by that due to our Galaxy. One-year-post-explosion
photometry with the New Technology Telescope and a Subaru optical spectrum 16 days post-discovery both
imply a good match with the well-studied subluminous SN 2005cs. The plateau-phase luminosity of SN 2009js
and its plateau duration are more similar to the intermediate luminosity IIP SN 2008in. Thus, SN 2009js sharescharacteristics with both subluminous and intermediate luminosity supernovae (SNe). Its radioactive tail luminosity
lies between SN 2005cs and SN 2008in, whereas its quasi-bolometric luminosity decline from peak to plateau(quantified by a newly defined parameter ΔlogL, which measures adiabatic cooling following shock breakout) ismuch smaller than both the others’. We estimate the ejected mass of 56 Ni to be low (∼0.007 M ). The SN explosion
energy appears to have been small, similar to that of SN 2005cs. SN 2009js is the first subluminous SN IIP to
be studied in the mid-infrared. It was serendipitously caught by Spitzer at very early times. In addition, it was
detected by WISE 105 days later with a significant 4.6 μm flux excess above the photosphere. The infrared excess
luminosity relative to the photosphere is clearly smaller than that of SN 2004dj, which has been extensively studied
in the mid-infrared. The excess may be tentatively assigned to heated dust with mass ∼3 × 10−5 M , or to CO
fundamental emission as a precursor to dust formation.
Key word: supernovae: individual (SN 2009js, SN 2005cs, SN 2008in)
Online-only material: color figures

features that soon disappear), and ambiguous events collectedunder the generic II-pec, or peculiar, sub-class.
The IIP population is important because it represents the mostnumerous sub-class, constituting about 75% of all Type II SNe(Li et al. 2011; Smith et al. 2011). This sub-class itself
encompasses a wide range of properties (Hamuy 2003), andthere is much debate regarding the progenitors of these events,
with present constraints favoring masses between 8 and 16 M
(e.g., see Smartt et al. 2009 for a review). The subluminous SNe
may occupy the lower mass end of this range (Fraser et al. 2011),
though comparatively few firm constraints exist. Their low
luminosities have been attributed either to low mass progenitors
or to “fall back” events in which a massive progenitor gives rise
to a black hole core and swallows a large fraction of the stellar
material which would otherwise have escaped, thus limiting theobserved luminosity (e.g., Zampieri et al. 1998; Moriya et al.
2010). Only about a dozen subluminous IIPs have been studied
in any detail (e.g., Turatto et al. 1998; Pastorello et al. 2004;
Spiro & Pastorello 2009; Fraser et al. 2011), and understanding
their nature will require observations of more sources to enlarge
the present sample and also to bridge the “gap” between
the subluminous and normal IIP population (e.g., Roy et al.
2011).

1. INTRODUCTION
Core-collapse supernovae (SNe) represent the deaths ofmassive stars through runaway implosions of cores, followedby explosive expulsion of their outer layers. They exhibit adiverse range of properties in terms of their spectral and photometric evolution (e.g., Filippenko 1997). Observational followup within the past few years has also uncovered an incredibly
broad range of emitted luminosities: from superluminous SNe(Gal-Yam 2012) with luminosities greater than 7 × 1043 erg s−1 ,to “subluminous” events (Pastorello et al. 2004) that are factorsof 10–100 times less powerful at peak. Understanding the originof this diversity is an important goal of present research.
The Type II class of SN events displays spectroscopic
signatures of hydrogen, and appears in at least three sub-classes.
The IIP sources are named after a stage of flat (“plateau”) light
curves showing constant flux for several months. IIL sources,on the other hand, show a monotonic and linear decline of theirpost-explosion brightness without any plateau. Lastly, the IIn
sub-class shows spectral features that are much narrower thanin the other sub-classes; this is thought to be a result of strong
interaction between SN ejecta and the circumstellar medium.
Other sub-classes include the IIb (with weak hydrogen spectral
1

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Gandhi et al.

In this paper, we present optical and mid-infrared observations of SN 2009js in the galaxy NGC 918. As we show inthis work, the source was a Type IIP event, which shares many
characteristics with two other SNe: the well-studied subluminous SN 2005cs, and the intermediate luminosity SN 2008in.
We report optical photometric evolution over the first year of
SN 2009js, in addition to optical spectroscopy early in theplateau phase. From the multi-band light curves, we can constrain the explosion epoch, and measure the plateau length andsource luminosity, thus allowing a computation of the line-ofsight reddening and explosion energy. Mid-infrared (MIR) photometric data with the Spitzer and Wide-field Infrared Survey
Explorer (WISE) missions are also reported, and allow tentative
constraints on the dust surrounding SN 2009js. As far as weare aware, this is the first mid-infrared study of an SN whichshares characteristics of subluminous events. This work is thus
a valuable addition to the low luminosity class of events.
The discovery of SN 2009js was first reported by Nakano et al.
(2009), and also independently by Silverman et al. (2009), datingfrom 2009 October 11.44 and 11.689. The SN was located at
J2000 coordinates of R.A. = 02h 25m 48.s 3, decl. = +18◦ 29 26 ,about 35. 5 W and 20. 7 S of the nucleus of NGC 918. Optical
spectra obtained the following day with the 3 m Shane reflector(+ Kast) at Lick Observatory indicated the object to be very
similar to the Type IIP SN 2005cs about two days post-maximum
brightness. An Hα absorption blueshift of 7200 km s−1 intrinsic
to the SN was measured in this spectrum.
We assume a distance to the host galaxy NGC 918 of 21.7 ±1.8 Mpc (z = 0.005; e.g., Martı́nez-Garcı́a et al. 2009 andreferences therein). This galaxy is of morphological class Sc13
oriented at a position angle of 158◦ . It has hosted two SNe in
the past three years: SN 2011ek (a Type Ia reported by Nakano
et al. 2011), and SN 2009js which is the subject of this paper.

55131.6), about 16 days post-discovery, with the Faint Object
Camera and Spectrograph (FOCAS; Kashikawa et al. 2002)
mounted on the Subaru telescope. This provides important
information on the SN type and ejecta kinematics. Observational
details may be found in Appendix B.
2.2. Mid-infrared Imaging
Although the source had been monitored in the optical since2009, we identified it as being of particular interest in 2011 when
we noticed its detection in the mid-infrared serendipitously by
two missions. MIR detections of SNe (especially of the low
luminosity class to which SN 2009js belongs) are relatively
scarce.
Spitzer observed the host galaxy NGC 918 for unrelatedscience14 on two occasions: about one month pre-explosion
and also two days post-discovery. SN 2009js shows a brightdetection in the latter set of images in both observed bands
centered on 3.6 and 4.5 μm (hereafter, channels IRAC1 andIRAC2, respectively) of the InfraRed Array Camera (IRAC;
Fazio et al. 2004).
On longer timescales, the WISE satellite (Wright et al. 2010)detected the source in its W1 and W2 bands centered on
wavelengths of ≈3.4 and 4.6 μm, respectively, at an epoch ofabout +107 days. These data are publicly available as part of themission all-sky survey release. Later non-detections at epochsof about +295 and +470 days are also available.
The MIR observation log may be found in Table 2, alongwith a full description of the data analysis and photometry
procedures in Appendix C. MIR flux measurements are listed inTable 3. Spitzer and WISE images are shown in Figures 1 and 2,
respectively.
3. RESULTS

2. OBSERVATIONS

3.1. Reddening due to the Galaxy

2.1. Optical Imaging and Spectroscopy

The optical data were dereddened assuming a standard
interstellar extinction law with RV = 3.1 (Fitzpatrick 1999).
The Galactic extinction along this line of sight is determined to
be AV = 0.95 from the work of Schlafly & Finkbeiner (2011).
A 10% uncertainty is assumed on this value.
In the mid-infrared, several more recent determinations of thedereddening law have been published, and we used an average
extinction law computed from these, resulting in A3.4 μm /AV =0.07 and A4.6 μm /AV = 0.05 (see Section 2.2.3 of Gandhi et al.
2011 for details and references).

Three sets of optical imaging data are used in our work.
1. Early-time photometry, including pre-discovery limits anddiscovery data (Nakano et al. 2009; Silverman et al.
2009). These were obtained in filterless imaging mode.
Throughout this paper, we assume a discovery epoch of2009 October 11.44 (Nakano et al. 2009; Silverman et al.
2009).
2. Plateau-phase BV RC IC follow-up of the field of SN 2009js
carried out with the HOWPol instrument (Hiroshima Oneshot Wide-field Polarimeter; Kawabata et al. 2008) at the
Kanata telescope, starting on 2009 October 14.8 at an epochof +3.4 days (epochs are quoted post-discovery throughout)and continuing for about four months.
3. A single late-time epoch in the V RI filters is publicly
available from observations made at the ESO Faint Object
Spectrograph and Camera (EFOSC; Buzzoni et al. 1984)
mounted on the New Technology Telescope (NTT). These
data date from 2010 October 6, just under one year
post-explosion.
All observation details (including logs and analysis) may befound in Appendix A. The photometric measurements are listed
in Table 1.
In addition to photometry, an optical spectrum of SN 2009js
was obtained by some of us on UT 2009 October 27 (MJD =3.2. Reddening Local to the Host Galaxy
Extinction local to the source was estimated by using therelationship between host galaxy reddening and plateau V – I
color identified by Olivares et al. (2010). The V – I color isthat measured at −30 days from the mid-point of the transition
phase (tPT ). The optical light curves and tPT measurement aredescribed in the following section. tPT –30 corresponds to day 80,
at which time the V – I color of SN 2009js (corrected for Galactic
reddening) is 0.73 ± 0.13. Using Equation (7) of Olivares et al.
(2010) returns AV (host) = 0.18 ± 0.38.
3.3. Optical Light Curves
The change in brightness between the early-time prediscovery and the discovery epoch photometry implies a

13 http://leda.univ-lyon1.fr

14 Cycle 9 PROGID 61060, PI: K. Sheth.

2The Astrophysical Journal, 767:166 (15pp), 2013 April 20

Gandhi et al.
Table 1
Optical Photometry

EpochaMJD

B(mag) (mJy)V(mag) (mJy)R(mag) (mJy)I(mag) (mJy)

–
–
–
–
–
–
–

–
–
–
–
–
–
–

–
16.76 ± 0.03 (1.37 ± 0.49)
16.79 ± 0.04 (1.34 ± 0.48)–
16.80 ± 0.04 (1.32 ± 0.47)
16.83 ± 0.04 (1.28 ± 0.46)
16.80 ± 0.09 (1.32 ± 0.48)
16.87 ± 0.05 (1.24 ± 0.45)
16.83 ± 0.04 (1.29 ± 0.46)
16.83 ± 0.04 (1.28 ± 0.46)
16.85 ± 0.04 (1.26 ± 0.45)
16.85 ± 0.06 (1.27 ± 0.46)
16.85 ± 0.13 (1.27 ± 0.48)
16.85 ± 0.05 (1.27 ± 0.46)
16.87 ± 0.05 (1.24 ± 0.45)
16.95 ± 0.05 (1.16 ± 0.42)
16.94 ± 0.03 (1.16 ± 0.42)
17.17 ± 0.07 (0.94 ± 0.34)
17.28 ± 0.06 (0.85 ± 0.31)–
17.93 ± 0.15 (0.47 ± 0.18)
18.07 ± 0.09 (0.41 ± 0.15)
18.47 ± 0.16 (0.28 ± 0.11)
18.66 ± 0.21 (0.24 ± 0.10)
18.87 ± 0.13 (0.20 ± 0.07)–
16.49 ± 0.03 (1.08 ± 0.38)
16.52 ± 0.03 (1.06 ± 0.37)–
16.51 ± 0.03 (1.07 ± 0.38)
16.46 ± 0.07 (1.11 ± 0.40)
16.48 ± 0.06 (1.09 ± 0.39)
16.43 ± 0.06 (1.15 ± 0.41)
16.43 ± 0.04 (1.15 ± 0.41)
16.35 ± 0.04 (1.23 ± 0.44)
16.33 ± 0.03 (1.26 ± 0.45)
16.33 ± 0.03 (1.25 ± 0.44)
16.35 ± 0.08 (1.24 ± 0.45)
16.33 ± 0.04 (1.26 ± 0.45)
16.32 ± 0.04 (1.27 ± 0.45)
16.38 ± 0.05 (1.20 ± 0.43)
16.36 ± 0.03 (1.23 ± 0.43)
16.62 ± 0.04 (0.96 ± 0.34)
16.64 ± 0.05 (0.95 ± 0.34)–
17.29 ± 0.10 (0.52 ± 0.19)
17.30 ± 0.05 (0.51 ± 0.18)
17.62 ± 0.09 (0.38 ± 0.14)
17.88 ± 0.17 (0.30 ± 0.12)
18.59 ± 0.20 (0.16 ± 0.06)

21.95 ± 0.30 (0.010 ± 0.004)

21.10 ± 0.10 (0.014 ± 0.003)

Early-time unfiltered
−16.8
−11.0
0.0
0.3
0.7
1.0
1.1

55098.7
55104.4
55115.4
55115.7
55116.2
55116.4
55116.5<18.5I<18.9K
17.2K
17.2I
16.7Y
17.3K
17.2I

–
–
–
–
–
–
–

Kanata
3.4
6.2
8.2
10.2
11.3
18.3
20.2
24.2
25.3
34.2
43.3
46.2
48.1
51.1
56.2
66.1
69.1
90.1
95.1
103.1
106.1
107.1
109.1
112.1
117.1

55118.855121.6
55123.655125.6
55126.7
55133.7
55135.6
55139.655140.755149.655158.7
55161.655163.5
55166.5
55171.6
55181.555184.555205.555210.5
55218.5
55221.555222.555224.555227.555232.5

17.95 ± 0.05 (1.04 ± 0.39)
17.97 ± 0.05 (1.03 ± 0.38)
18.07 ± 0.10 (0.93 ± 0.35)
18.16 ± 0.04 (0.86 ± 0.32)
18.25 ± 0.05 (0.79 ± 0.29)
18.56 ± 0.12 (0.59 ± 0.23)
18.60 ± 0.30 (0.57 ± 0.26)–
18.68 ± 0.17 (0.53 ± 0.21)
18.83 ± 0.10 (0.46 ± 0.18)
19.02 ± 0.11 (0.39 ± 0.15)
19.06 ± 0.11 (0.38 ± 0.14)–
18.99 ± 0.32 (0.40 ± 0.19)
19.29 ± 0.14 (0.30 ± 0.12)
19.36 ± 0.21 (0.28 ± 0.12)
19.49 ± 0.15 (0.25 ± 0.10)–
19.92 ± 0.21 (0.17 ± 0.07)
–
–
–
–
–
–

17.28 ± 0.04 (1.23 ± 0.45)
17.30 ± 0.02 (1.21 ± 0.44)
17.30 ± 0.10 (1.20 ± 0.45)–
17.37 ± 0.04 (1.13 ± 0.41)
17.43 ± 0.06 (1.07 ± 0.39)
17.42 ± 0.13 (1.08 ± 0.41)–
17.41 ± 0.05 (1.08 ± 0.39)
17.47 ± 0.06 (1.03 ± 0.37)
17.50 ± 0.04 (1.00 ± 0.36)
17.50 ± 0.04 (1.00 ± 0.36)
17.45 ± 0.17 (1.05 ± 0.41)
17.54 ± 0.09 (0.96 ± 0.36)
17.59 ± 0.05 (0.92 ± 0.33)
17.67 ± 0.04 (0.86 ± 0.31)
17.67 ± 0.05 (0.86 ± 0.31)
17.90 ± 0.09 (0.69 ± 0.25)
17.95 ± 0.08 (0.66 ± 0.24)
18.26 ± 0.20 (0.50 ± 0.20)
18.70 ± 0.27 (0.33 ± 0.14)
18.77 ± 0.16 (0.31 ± 0.12)
–
–
–
EFOSC

359.8

55475.3–

23.45 ± 0.63 (0.004 ± 0.003)

Notes. For the unfiltered early-time photometry, the observers are Itagaki (denoted by superscript I), KAIT (superscript K), and Yusa (superscript Y). The measurement
by Yusa is not included in our analysis because it is brighter by 0.5 mag as compared to all other photometry obtained both before and after. No uncertainties arereported and it is impossible to judge its veracity. Listed magnitudes and magnitude limits are the observed ones in the B, V, R, and I bands, whereas fluxes have beencorrected for Galactic and host reddening. Errors in flux (1σ ) include corresponding systematic dereddening uncertainties.
a Denotes days post-discovery (2009 October 11.44).
Table 2
Infrared Observation Log
Date (MJD)
UT2009 Sep 06.7 (55080.7)
2009 Oct 13.6 (55117.6)
2010 Jan 26.1 (55222.1)a2010 Aug 02.8 (55410.8)a2011 Jan 25.7 (55586.7)aTelescope/Instrument/Survey

Obs. Identifier

Bands

Exposure Times

Spitzer/IRAC/S4G
Spitzer/IRAC/S4G
WISE/All-sky release
WISE/All-sky release
WISE/Post-cryo release

AOR = 30590976
AOR = 30606848

3.6 μm (IRAC1), 4.5 μm (IRAC2)
3.6 μm (IRAC1), 4.5 μm (IRAC2)
3.4 μm (W1), 4.6 μm (W2)
3.4 μm (W1), 4.6 μm (W2)
3.4 μm (W1), 4.6 μm (W2)

23.6, 26.8
23.6, 26.8
100.1a177.1a84.7aNote. a The date quoted for the WISE images is the approximate median date of multiple exposures observed around that epoch. The exposure time is simply the frame
time (7.7 s) multiplied by the number of L1b frames selected for co-addition.

brightening by at least 1.7 mag in less than 11 days (seeTable 1). Figure 3 shows the long-term source optical light
curves. The early-time photometric detections from publishedfilterless photometry match our first Kanata V-band measurements closely. The long steady light curves in several(redder) Kanata filters are characteristic of Type IIP SNe.
The late-time NTT magnitudes probe the nebular phase andshow a dimming with respect to the peak brightness measured by Kanata of about 6.2, 5.2, and 4.8 mag in V, R, and I,
respectively.
3

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Gandhi et al.

Figure 1. Spitzer IRAC1 and IRAC2 pre-explosion images from 2009 September 6 at an epoch of 34.8 days before discovery (left column), and 2.2 days post-discovery
on 2009 October 13 (right column). The position of SN 2009js is marked by the green circle. The size of each image is about 2. 4 × 2 , with north being up and east to
the left. The SN is clearly visible just two days after explosion in the column on the right in both bands.
(A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.)transition phase are found to be

Table 3
Infrared Photometry of SN 2009js
Daysa

MJD

Telescope

Short MIRb
(μJy)

Longer MIRc
(μJy)

−34.8
+2.2
+106.7+295.4+471.355080.7
55117.655222.1
55410.8
55586.7

Spitzer
Spitzer
WISE
WISE
WISE

<9
226 ± 13129 ± 12
<60
<90

<18
211 ± 11136 ± 15<80
<100

Notes.
a Denotes days post-discovery (2009 October 11.44).
b Refers to the Spitzer 3.6 μm or WISE 3.4 μm band.
c Refers to the Spitzer 4.5 μm or WISE 4.6 μm band. Quoted fluxes are directly
observed values, uncorrected for extinction.

a0 = 2.24 ± 1.04 mag(1)tPT = 111.3 ± 3.6 days(2)

w0 = 4.5 ± 2.4 days(3)

p0 = 0.009 ± 0.004 mag day−1(4)

m0 = 18.46 ± 0.93 mag(5)χ 2 /dof = 1.7/5,(6)where a0 represents the plateau brightness above the linear phase(in mag), tPT denotes the mid-point of the transition phase in days
(from discovery), and w0 is the width of this phase (in days).
The slope and intercept of the linear radioactive nebular decline
are p0 and m0 , respectively. The goodness of fit is quantified byχ 2 /dof, with dof being the degrees of freedom.

In order to characterize the light curve evolutionary phases,
we fitted the latter part of the I-band light curve (beyond an epochof +60 days) using a two component Fermi–Dirac function
plus linear function following the procedure of Olivares et al.
(2010; see their Equations (1) and (2)). The I band was chosenbecause the comparison with the light curves of SN 2005cs
in Figure 3 shows that this band probably covers the bulk of
the transition phase between the plateau and tail (this will befurthered discussed in Section 4.4). Although our Kanata data do
not cover the beginning of the tail, the NTT photometry allows
an approximate (i.e., two-point) estimation of the evolution
during this phase, under the assumption that the Kanata data
cover the bulk of the transition. The best-fit parameters for the

3.4. Mid-infrared Photometry
The MIR detection of SN 2009js was first noticed by us during
an examination by eye of the WISE all-sky preliminary data
release fields (first-pass processing prior to the all-sky release)of SNe that occurred during, or before the beginning of, theWISE survey. Thereafter, we checked and found the source tobe detected with Spitzer as well.
The Spitzer detection is very significant at both the observed
wavelengths of 3.6 and 4.5 μm two days post-discovery. As
4

The Astrophysical Journal, 767:166 (15pp), 2013 April 20

Gandhi et al.

Figure 2. Top and middle: WISE 3.4 and 3.6 μm (W1 and W2) Atlas L3 images of NGC 918 taken around 2010 January 26 (epoch ∼107 days post-discovery) are
shown in the left column. In the right column, Spitzer pre-explosion IRAC1 and IRAC2 images have been subtracted, after scaling and PSF matching. The SN isclearly visible. Bottom: co-added images produced from L1 data of each of the three WISE epochs (see Table 2) shown in order from left to right, with the SN position
marked by a green arrow. North is up and east left, and images are approximately 2. 5 on a side.
(A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.)of WISE imaging and some images from the second epoch(2010 August). Comparing with our co-added images produced
from the L1b frames (see description in Appendix C.2 andlower panels shown in Figure 2), we find that the signal in
the Atlas images is completely dominated by the first epoch(2010 January).
Subsequent observations by WISE (in 2010 August and 2011
January) do not show any appreciable detections. Detection
upper limits at epochs of ∼300 and 470 days post-discovery
in Table 3 show that the SN declined by a factor of at least
1.4 in flux (and probably more) in both bands on timescales of∼6 months or less.

compared to the pre-explosion images obtained about 37 days
prior to this, the flux at the position of the SN increased byfactors of at least 25 and 11 in the two channels, respectively(Table 3). This is undoubtedly a strong lower limit to the change
in flux of the SN itself.
The WISE data show the source to be clearly present in
the Atlas images taken about 100 days post-discovery. Table 3
implies a decline in flux by factors of 1.8 and 1.6 (or magnitudesof 0.6 and 0.5) in W1 and W2 over this period, as compared toSpitzer IRAC1 and IRAC2, respectively. The WISE detection ishighlighted in Figure 2 by subtracting smoothed and resampled
IRAC1 and IRAC2 pre-explosion images from the Atlas W1 andW2 images, respectively. Proximity to the host galaxy results
in non-uniform underlying residuals. The combination on an
uneven background with the large WISE point-spread function(PSF) may explain why the source was not picked up by theautomated pipeline.
The Atlas image presented in Figure 2 is made from a
combination of all images from the first epoch (2010 January)

3.5. Optical Spectrum
The Subaru spectrum of SN 2009js is shown in Figure 4.
The dereddened data have a blue spectral shape over the opticalregime as expected from the hot temperature T ≈ 7000 K around
16 days post-discovery. A P Cygni profile of the absorbed blue
wing for a strong emission line is most clearly visible for Hα,5Magnitude (dereddened)

The Astrophysical Journal, 767:166 (15pp), 2013 April 20

Gandhi et al.

20

25

I
R+3
V+6
B+9

30

0

100

200
Epoch (days)

300

Figure 3. Reddening-corrected BVRI light curves of SN 2009js compared to those of SN 2005cs (thin dotted curves) and SN 2008in (dashed) covering both the Kanata
and NTT monitoring data to an epoch of about 360 days. Both Galactic and local reddening corrections have been applied for all objects. The cyan upper-limit arrows
and detections on the left denote the pre-explosion limits and early-time photometry from the literature. This is unfiltered photometry, closely matched to the V band(see the Appendix for details). The circled symbols on the right are the NTT V RI magnitudes. Light curves for SN 2005cs and SN 2008in have been scaled in order
to approximately match during plateau, for comparison.
(A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.)

2.0

1.5

ο

Flux (10-15 erg s-1 cm-2 A -1)

2009js (+16)
2005cs (+17)
2008in (+14)

1.0

0.5

0.0
4000

5000

6000
7000
8000
ο
Rest wavelength (A )

9000

10000

Figure 4. Subaru/FOCAS spectrum of SN 2009js at 16 days post-discovery (black) compared to the Mt. Ekar 1.82 m AFOSC spectrum of SN 2005cs 17 days
post-discovery (red curve observed on 2005 July 14; from Pastorello et al. 2009), and with SN 2008in 14 days post-explosion (blue curve observed on 2009 January 7;
from Roy et al. 2011). The comparison spectra of SN 2005cs and SN 2008in were normalized to the continuum of SN 2009js around 7000 Å, and then offset slightly
for better legibility. The match between SN 2009js and SN 2005cs is excellent, except that the continuum slope of SN 2005cs is slightly bluer as a result of its hotter
temperature. SN 2008in was further scaled in order to match the peak strength of the Hα emission line. SN 2008in shows a significant difference with respect to theother two objects in terms of having a much shallower blueshifted Hα absorption feature.
(A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.)

and also for Hβ. Many other significant absorption features canbe discerned over the full wavelength range.
The Na i D doublet near 5891 Å is a tracer of line-of-sightextinction, and our spectrum shows two Na i absorption features:

one in the rest frame of the host galaxy, and one consistent
with extinction arising in the Milky Way. The equivalent
widths of the features are ≈1.1 Å and 3.6 Å, respectively.
The Milky Way feature is the stronger of the two, which is
6

The Astrophysical Journal, 767:166 (15pp), 2013 April 20

Temperature (1000 K)

12

Gandhi et al.

subsequent Kanata monitoring, meaning that we do not probe
the initial flux rise. Using the non-detection at an epoch of−11 days (Table 1), the explosion can be constrained to haveoccurred at MJD 55109.94 (2009 October 05.94) to within an
uncertainty of 5.5 days.

09js
05cs
99br
87A
08in

10
8

4.2. Evolution of Temperature and Bolometric Luminosity
6

Multi-band photometry is available for multiple epochs ofKanata monitoring, and for one late epoch at the NTT (Table 1).
Each epoch was corrected for reddening due to the Galaxy andthat local to the source, and then fitted with single Planck
functions under the assumption that the early evolution isdominated by photospheric emission. Of the 25 nights of optical
Kanata photometry, epochs +3.4 and +107.1 coincide closelywith the MIR detections of SN 2009js with Spitzer and WISE,
respectively. In these two cases, the optical and MIR data
were fitted simultaneously. Best-fit parameters and uncertainties
were measured using the mpfit package (Markwardt 2009) in
idl.15 This allows measurement of photospheric temperatures(T) and (quasi)bolometric luminosities (LUBVRI ), both of which
are plotted as functions of time in Figures 5 and 6, respectively.
Three representative epoch fits are shown in Figure 7.
There is an apparent fast rise in T between the first two Kanata
temperature measurements (a timespan of three days), which is
intriguing given that none of the light curves in Figure 3 show
any dramatic increase at this phase. Some caution is necessary ininterpreting this rise, given that it is only a single measurementof temperature change and the uncertainties are somewhat large.
The subsequent evolution shows a decline from a peak of ∼8500
to 5000 K over a timespan of about 120 days. Data in all
optical filters were not available for each epoch, resulting inlarge uncertainties when only a few filters were observed. But
the systematic trend of temperature evolution is clear regardlessof these variations.

4
2
0
0

20

40

60
80
Epoch (days)

100

120

Figure 5. Evolution in blackbody temperature after correcting for local andGalactic reddening.
(A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.)

consistent with the reddening trend determined in Sections 3.1
and 3.2.
In order to classify the SN spectrum, we used the snid
code (Blondin & Tonry 2007) in order to compare this source
to previous events. The returned closest match is to theType IIP SN 2005cs (Pastorello et al. 2009). The optical spectrum of this source at a phase of ≈17 days is overplotted in
Figure 4 and shows an excellent match to SN 2009js. Measuring
the centroid wavelength of the trough of the Hα P Cygni absorption component in the rest-frame spectrum yields a blueshift of
5216 ± 30 km s−1 for SN 2009js.
4. DISCUSSION
4.1. Explosion Epoch
The exact explosion epoch of SN 2009js is unknown.
Early-time discovery epoch photometry aligns well with our

15 http://www.exelisvis.com/ProductsServices/IDL.aspx

09js
08in
05cs
04et
99em
99gi

log LUBVRI (erg s-1)

42

41

40

39
0

100

200
Epoch (days)

300

400

Figure 6. Evolution in quasi-bolometric power (integrated under the Planck function between 3500 Å and 1 μm) after correcting for local and Galactic reddening.
Data for comparison SNe are taken from Figure 9 of Pastorello et al. (2009) except for SN 2008in, for which LUBVRI is computed from the photometric data presented
by Roy et al. (2011) in a manner identical to that for SN 2009js.
(A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.)

7

The Astrophysical Journal, 767:166 (15pp), 2013 April 20

Gandhi et al.

Epoch 56.2 days. T=4582±667 K.

Epoch 3.4 days. T=6571±579 K.

1

mJy

mJy

1

0.1

0.1

0.1

1
μm

10

0.1

1
μm

10

Epoch 107.1 days. T=5193±414 K.

mJy

1

0.1

0.1

1
μm

10

Figure 7. Blackbody fits to multi-wavelength epoch SEDs, corrected for local and Galactic reddening. Three epochs close to the beginning (epoch +3.4), middle(epoch +56.2), and end (epoch +107.1) of Kanata monitoring are shown for illustration. The first and last of these include MIR detections.
(A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.)

Figure 6 shows the change in LUBVRI , the optical quasibolometric luminosity. Although we do not have U-band monitoring, LUBVRI can be measured as the integration under the fitted
Planck curve between wavelengths of 0.35–1 μm. This parameterization of the optical bolometric power has been chosen to
facilitate direct comparisons with other measurements in the literature, which will be discussed shortly. The peak luminosity is
log LUBVRI (erg s−1 ) ≈ 41.6. This quasi-bolometric light curvealso shows four distinct phases:

1.50 higher than LUBVRI , on average. Integrating LBol over all
epochs returns a total radiative energy of about 5.2 × 1048 erg.
4.3. SN 2009js: Comparisons with SN 2005cs and SN 2008in
The optical light curves discussed above (especially in the R
and I bands, as well as in LUBVRI ) show the presence of a clear
plateau phase. This confirms the Type IIP nature of the source,
initial suggestions of which were based upon very-early-time
spectroscopy (Silverman et al. 2009). The long-term V RI light
curves shown in Figure 3 suggest that the change in brightness
from mid-plateau to late nebular phase is overall similar to thatof the subluminous SN 2005cs.
Based upon early-time optical spectroscopy, Silverman
et al. (2009) measured an Hα absorption redshift of about
7200 km s−1 at two days after maximum brightness, and suggested a match to SN 2005cs. Peak brightness corresponds toa phase of two days according to Pastorello et al. (2009). Our
measurement of the blueshift in the Subaru spectrum obtained
at a phase of about 16 days post-discovery is 2000 km s−1
lower (Section 3.5), as expected from the gradual loweringwith time of the outer photospheric layer that is optically thick.
This Subaru spectrum also displays a remarkable affinity to thatof SN 2005cs at 17 days (Figure 4). Although there is some

1. an initial fast fade within the first ∼20 days;
2. a period of approximately constant output for the next
∼70 days;
3. a sharp decline in the transition between the plateau andnebular phases to the last probed Kanata data point;
4. and finally, an apparently gentler decline between the
Kanata and NTT epochs.
The mean changes in LUBVRI during these four periods
are approximately: (1) −0.011; (2) −0.001; (3) −0.024; and(4) −0.006, as measured in log luminosity (dex) per day.
The total bolometric power (LBol ) may be computed byintegrating under the full Planck curve, including contributions
from the far-ultraviolet and infrared regimes. This is a factor of8The Astrophysical Journal, 767:166 (15pp), 2013 April 20

Gandhi et al.

-16

MV

-14

-12

09js
08in
05cs
04et
99em
99gi

-10

0

100

200
Epoch (days)

300

Figure 8. Absolute reddening-corrected magnitude (MV ) light curve of SN 2009js compared to other events.
(A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.)

three sources in the following sections. Ultimately, however, theexact nomenclature of the assigned class is not crucial. Rather,
the main question is whether the underlying progenitor andexplosion properties of these events are significantly different
or not.

uncertainty in determining the explosion epoch of SN 2009js,
these matches provide evidence (in addition to that discussed in
Section 4.1) that SN 2009js was discovered close to the time of
explosion (i.e., within a few days). All these lines of evidence
suggest that SN 2009js was a 2005cs-like event.
Both sources show peak optical bolometric luminosities ofwell below 1042 erg s−1 , above which “normal” Type II SNegenerally lie. Furthermore, both sources have absolute V-band
magnitudes much lower (intrinsically fainter) than MV = −16.
This appears to also support a subluminous classification for
SN 2009js. However, Figure 6 shows that the plateau-phaseluminosity of SN 2009js is instead much more closely matchedto that of another source, SN 2008in. This was also a Type IIP
event, studied in detail by Roy et al. (2011). It has beenclassified as an intermediate luminosity source, bridging the“gap” between the subluminous and normal populations. We
computed LUBVRI (2008in) by using the multi-band photometry
and extinction determination presented by Roy et al. (2011),
and using the Planck-function fitting exactly as for SN 2009js.
Almost identical results are obtained if we use the quasibolometric light curves (in terms of UVOIR) presented in Figure
12 of Roy et al. (2011) and use a mean conversion factor to
the UBVRI wavelength range over the light curve. In addition,
Figure 8 shows single-band absolute magnitude light curves,
avoiding any uncertainties related to bolometric corrections,and again suggesting a reasonable match between SN 2008in
and SN 2009js during the plateau phase. On the other hand, themain difference with respect to SN 2008in is in terms of thespectra: Figure 4 shows significantly broader Hα in emission
for SN 2008in and a blueshifted absorption feature which is
weaker by a factor of about two (in terms of equivalent width)
as compared to the other two sources. Roy et al. (2011) have alsostudied the evolution of the spectral velocities for SN 2008in
and found significantly larger velocities than for SN 2005cs overthe first 100 days.
Thus, it appears that SN 2009js shares mixed characteristics
of both “subluminous” and “intermediate” luminosity events.
We discuss other similarities and differences between these

4.3.1. Further Detailed Comparisons

1. The plateau luminosity of SN 2009js is higher than that of
SN 2005cs by a factor of about two, and more closely
matched to SN 2008in, as mentioned in the previous
section. During transition between the plateau and nebularphases, however, SN 2009js fades and falls below theluminosity of SN 2005cs. During the late nebular phase, theluminosity of SN 2009js lies in between that of SN 2005cs
and SN 2008in. This is readily apparent from the quasibolometric luminosity light curve and the absolute V-band
light curve in Figures 6 and 8.
2. The plateau phase is somewhat shorter than that of
SN 2005cs, which is why the luminosity of SN 2009js drops
below that of SN 2005cs during the transition phase. In
Equation (2), we have measured tPT (2009js) = 111 days. We
carried out an identical fit for the light curve of SN 2005cs
and found a significantly larger tPT (2005cs) = 130.8 ±0.2 days. The difference of about 20 days is larger than theuncertainties on the explosion epoch (Section 4.1). A comparison with other SNe yields a similar result, a fact thatis best seen in Figure 9. This figure shows the evolution of
LUBVRI values for various SNe as in Figure 6, with the onlychange being that all sources are shifted vertically (normalized) in order to approximately match the early-time peakof SN 2009js. Apparently, the drop in LBol for SN 2009js
occurs from a few days before, to up to two weeks before,that in most other sources: SNe 2005cs, 2004et, 1999em,
and 1999gi. However, the plateau length does appear tomatch that of SN 2008in, which has also been measured
to be short (∼98 days according to Roy et al. 2011; also
apparent in Figure 3).
9The Astrophysical Journal, 767:166 (15pp), 2013 April 20

Gandhi et al.

1.0

log LUBVRI (norm)

0.8

0.6

0.4

09js
08in
05cs
04et
99em
99gi

0.2

0.0
0

20

40

60
Epoch (days)

80

100

120

Figure 9. Evolution in quasi-bolometric power (integrated under the Planck function between 3500 Å and 1 μm) after correcting for local and Galactic reddening.
(A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.)

3. Pastorello et al. (2006) found unusually blue U – B colors
for SN 2005cs, corresponding to very high continuum
temperatures T of up to 3 × 104 K at early times, whichcooled to T ∼ 7500 K at 35 days. According to ourmulti-epoch blackbody fits (Section 4.2), T(2009js) is
significantly lower over the entire period probed (Figure 6).
Figure 5 shows a reasonable match to the temperature
values found for SN 1999br and SN 2008in. We do nothave U-band monitoring data for SN 2009js, so one may
question whether we miss a significant fraction of the flux
and underestimate the photospheric temperature. However,
our multi-band optical photometry appears to satisfactorily
describe the Wien tail of the optical data (see, e.g., thedecrease toward shorter wavelengths in Figure 7). So weare unlikely to be missing any significant component in the
U band, and T(2009js) is then significantly lower than thatof SN 2005cs. This conclusion is robust to uncertainties
in host galaxy reddening, which is estimated to be low(Sections 3.2 and 3.5).
4. Figure 9 shows that SN 2005cs underwent a larger luminosity decrement between peak and plateau, as comparedto SN 2009js. In order to quantify this, we define a new parameter ΔlogL, the difference between the peak luminosity
and that measured at 50 days post-peak in log luminosity
units:(7)
ΔlogL = logL(tpeak ) − logL(tpeak +50d) .

that the relative decline from mid-plateau to the nebular phaseis very similar to that of SN 2005cs in all three available filters.
Although we do not probe the beginning of the nebular tail in
our Kanata monitoring, the comparison with SN 2005cs implies
that the I band is likely to have covered the bulk of the transition
phase after the plateau. This allowed us to measure the slope ofthe flux decline in the nebular phase in Section 3.3 to be p0 =0.009 mag day−1 , a value which lies within the range of values
found for other sources in the compilation of Olivares et al.
(2010).
The nebular phase is the result of energy release during theradioactive decay of 56 Ni. Thus, the luminosity in this phase
is a good tracer of the amount of 56 Ni produced. The fitted
blackbody temperature in this phase is 3530 ± 1000 K. In
terms of (quasi)bolometric optical power, LUBVRI (2009js) =2.08(±0.59) × 1039 erg s−1 . The luminosity uncertainty wasdetermined by Monte Carlo sampling of fluxes drawn from anormal distribution with standard deviation equal to the EFOSC
photometric errors in each filter, followed by integration of
the fitted Planck curves to give an ensemble of randomized
luminosities. This luminosity is 2.4(±0.7)×LUBVRI (2005cs) atan epoch of +360 days, and about 0.4(±0.1)×LUBVRI (2008in);in other words, SN 2009js lies between the other two SNe.
The 56 Ni mass produced in SN 2008in according to Roy
et al. (2011) was 0.015 M . Scaling this by luminosity implies
MNi (2009js) ≈ 0.006(± 0.002) M . Extrapolating instead fromthe 56 Ni mass synthesized in SN 2005cs (∼0.003 M ; according
to Pastorello et al. 2009) produces a very close result, i.e.,
MNi (2009js) ≈ 0.007(± 0.002) M . Assuming a 50% higher
bolometric correction (see Section 4.2), this may increase to
MNi (2009js) ≈ 0.011(± 0.003) M .
An important caveat regarding the measurement of the luminosity is that a Planck function may be a poor approximation
for the source spectrum during the nebular phase. This has been
investigated by Hamuy (2001), who suggests that although suchan approximation is worse in the nebular phase, the Planck
function still gives comparable results to direct integration overthe full optical–infrared regime, to within 15% accuracy. Using the bolometric correction of 0.26 mag from the V band
found by Hamuy (2001) for SN 1987A and SN 1999em, we

We have ΔlogL(2009js) = 0.16 dex and ΔlogL(2005cs) =0.36 dex when measuring the luminosity in terms of
LUBVRI . The match is even worse when compared to
SN 2008in, for which ΔlogL(2008in) = 0.47 dex. This
indicates a comparatively lower amount of radiative coolingfor SN 2009js during adiabatic expansion following shock
breakout. In this respect, SN 2009js is more closely matchedto SN 1999em (ΔlogL = 0.19) and SN 1999gi (ΔlogL =0.22).
4.4. Nebular Phase
The NTT data reveal the late phase evolution of SN 2009js.
The V RI light curves in terms of observed flux (Figure 3) show
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The Astrophysical Journal, 767:166 (15pp), 2013 April 20

Gandhi et al.

compute a nebular phase total bolometric luminosity (LBol ) of
3.6(± 2.7) × 1039 erg s−1 which is only 1.7× larger than (andconsistent within the reddening-corrected EFOSC V-band flux
uncertainty with) the value of LUBVRI used above and plotted in
Figure 6. If we instead use the R-band absolute magnitude inorder to avoid uncertainties related to bolometric corrections,then we have MR (2009js) ≈ MR (2005cs)–0.20 (with a 40%
reddening-corrected flux uncertainty) at an epoch of +360 days.
Scaling MNi then implies MNi (2009js) ≈ 0.004(± 0.0016) M .
In summary, the above range of MNi is much smaller thansynthesized in normal SNe II (for which MNi is generally greaterthan 0.05 M ), supporting the association with the subluminousclass of events.

Flux density (mJy)

1.0

0.1

1
Wavelength (μm)

4.5. Infrared Detections: Photosphere or Dust Emission?

10

Figure 10. Comparison of the optical and MIR SEDs of SN 2009js with
SN 2004dj. The two-blackbody fit to the optical and mid-IR data of SN 2009js
is denoted by the black continuous curves and filled circles at an epoch of∼107 days (Table 1). The photospheric temperatures of the two model sources
have been matched. For a carbon dust model, the mass of the dust fitting themid-IR data is ∼3 × 10−5 M . The SED and triple blackbody fit for SN 2004dj
at an epoch of 106 days are shown (Meikle et al. 2011) in light color and unfilledgreen squares. These have been normalized to match SN 2009js in the optical.
(A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.)

The Spitzer detections of SN 2009js at an epoch of two days
post-discovery, or 7.5 ± 5.5 days post-explosion (Section 3.4),
represent some of the earliest mid-infrared (MIR) SN detections,especially beyond 4 μm. Only SN 1987A has comparably
early mid-infrared follow-up in the shorter-wavelength L band
(Menzies et al. 1987). Subluminous SNe have not been studied
in detail in the mid-infrared so far.16 The fact that mid-infrared
detections of SN 2009js with both Spitzer and WISE wereserendipitous (i.e., not part of any SN survey) emphasizes theimportance of examining archival data and all-sky surveys indetail.
The question of dust production in SNe is a very active topic
of research. Dust has been detected in several SNe using midand far-infrared observations (e.g., Wooden et al. 1993; Kotak
et al. 2009; Meikle et al. 2011; Matsuura et al. 2011; Fox et al.
2011; Szalai & Vinkó 2013). The pace of dust production incore-collapse SNe is uncertain, but is generally regarded to havea characteristic timescale of several months to one year or more(e.g., Nozawa et al. 2003). Early-time MIR excesses have been
detected in some cases (e.g., in SN 1987A by Wooden et al.
1993, and in SN 2004dj by Meikle et al. 2011). In SN 1987A,
the excess is attributed to heating of circumstellar dust, while
in SN 2004dj, it is instead associated with echoes from newly
formed dust within a cool dense shell.
With only two MIR bands and the absence of any nearinfrared monitoring, it is difficult to assess the contribution ofdust to the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of SN 2009js.
However, we note that the spectral slopes between the twoavailable mid-infrared bands are flatter than those expected froma blackbody fitted to the broadband (optical+MIR) data. This iseasily visible in Figure 7 and is found to be true for both Kanata
epochs +3.4 days and +107.1 days when MIR detections areavailable. In the former, the slope is only marginally flatterthan the best-fitting Planck function within the photometric
uncertainties. In the latter, on the other hand, the 4.6 μm WISE
W2 excess appears to be significantly larger. This may beconsistent with the expectation of increased dust production
on timescales of months.
Although accurate assessment of the dust contribution isdifficult, it is possible to compare SN 2009js with anotherType IIP, SN 2004dj, in which MIR excesses attributed to freshly
formed dust have been observed (Meikle et al. 2011). Figure 10
shows the comparison of the optical and MIR SEDs of these twosources at a similar epoch of 106 days. For the latter source, thedata and triple blackbody fit are both taken from Meikle et al.

(2011) and are normalized to match SN 2009js in the optical.
From the fact that the MIR fluxes of SN 2009js lie well below
those of SN 2004dj (normalized to the optical photosphericemission), it is immediately clear that dust heating in SN 2009js
is much less efficient than in SN 2004dj. In order to construct a
comparative model of any potential dust emission in SN 2009js,
we assumed that the photospheres of the two sources appear
identical at this epoch, i.e., both have a temperature Tphotosphere =7000 K (Meikle et al. 2011). Two blackbody functions were used
to represent the photosphere and the dust, respectively. The fitted
model is shown in Figure 10, and yields Tdust (2009js) ≈ 630 K,
which is lower by a factor of about three than Tdust (2004dj) =1800 K from Meikle et al. (2011). Assuming that the emission
region is optically thin and that grain composition is mainly
amorphous carbon (Zubko et al. 1996), we find a dust mass of
Mdust (2009js) ∼ 3.0 × 10−5 M .17
The integrated dust luminosity is only about 3% of theintegrated photospheric luminosity in SN 2009js, whereas it isabout 15% for SN 2004dj (see Table 3 of Meikle et al. 2011). The
absolute luminosity of the dust component for SN 2004dj is also
higher, at about 2.5 times the value that we find for SN 2009js,
even though the luminosity of the photosphere of SN 2004dj is
about half that of SN 2009js at this epoch. Meikle et al. (2011)attributed the MIR excess to freshly formed dust within a cool
dense shell. If the same were to be true in the case of SN 2009js
and if both events had similar progenitors, then this would imply
much less dust production in SN 2009js. But the present datacannot distinguish freshly formed dust from a scenario where
the infrared excess originates as an echo from pre-existing dust.
This latter possibility may be more likely as various statisticalstudies of SNe dust have indicated (Fox et al. 2011; Szalai &Vinkó 2013). MIR detections at epochs of about 100 days may
be too early for the infrared excess to be interpreted as thermalradiation from dust formed in the ejecta (in Type IIP SNe, dust
17 A predominantly silicate dust composition, or a much cooler dust

component, cannot be ruled out, but these are less likely because a prominent
detection in the WISE W3 filter (encompassing the silicate emission feature
wavelength) is predicted in these cases at a level of ∼1 mJy. This flux level
corresponds closely to the canonical flux limit of the WISE all-sky survey(Wright et al. 2010), and there is no such detection in the all-sky release.

16 Archival Spitzer data of SN 2005cs were studied by Szalai & Vinkó (2013),
but no reliable detection was found.

11

The Astrophysical Journal, 767:166 (15pp), 2013 April 20

Gandhi et al.

generally condenses after about 300 days; e.g., Nozawa et al.
2003).
One other possibility to consider is that the 3.4 μm emission
is photospheric and not dust related (as suggested in the final
panel of Figure 7), whereas the 4.6 μm excess is the resultof fundamental CO molecular line emission. Such molecularemission is thought to be an important precursor signal to theimminent onset of dust condensation in SNe ejecta, and has
been discussed in the context of several SNe (e.g., Kotak et al.
2006; Meikle et al. 2011).
To summarize, the comparison with SN 2004dj suggests evidence of heated dust emission in SN 2009js at an epoch of about
107 days. Alternatively, the MIR excess above the photospheremay be a sign of dust-precursor molecular emission. Both ofthese scenarios are interesting, and it is important to extend
studies of dust formation to the subluminous SNe regime withfurther detailed follow-up work.

assumed to collapse during the SN, the initial progenitor
mass is estimated to be about 11 ± 5 M . Maguire et al.
(2010) have shown that progenitor mass estimates based upon
analytical relations are generally higher than those based uponpre-explosion images or detection limits, and some additional
caution is thus required when using these values. However, auseful statement that can be made is that these estimates of Mej
and Mprogenitor are consistent with those derived for SN 2005cs
using various methods (Pastorello et al. 2009; Maguire et al.
2010).
The explosion energy derived above for SN 2009js is lower
than that for SN 2008in (0.5 foe; Roy et al. 2011). The valueof E derived similarly for SN 2005cs (0.17 ± 0.08 foe) by
Maguire et al. (2010), on the other hand, is consistent withthat of SN 2009js, using identical analytical estimates as above.
These results provide additional support of a close association
between SN 2009js and SN 2005cs.19

4.6. The Nature of the Progenitor Star and the SN Explosion

5. SUMMARY

The nature of the progenitor of SN 2009js is presently
unknown. The fact that the source is 2005cs-like may suggest
a similar progenitor, which is constrained to be a moderatemass (8–15 M ) star (Pastorello et al. 2009). Progenitors ofsubluminous events may generally lie at the lower mass rangeof stars that produce core-collapse events (e.g., Fraser et al.
2011). The mass constraint on the intermediate luminosity
source SN 2008in is obtained only from analytic modeling of
the light curve and spectra: an upper limit of 20 M (Roy et al.
2011).
We have Spitzer pre-explosion images for SN 2009js, butthese do not provide stringent constraints on the progenitor.
We instead use established analytical relations in order to approximately estimate the explosion energy (E), ejected mass
(Mej ), and the pre-SN stellar radius (Rpre-SN ). For this purpose,
Equations (1)–(3) of Litvinova & Nadezhin (1985; see also
Popov 1993) may be used, with the caveats that these relations
ignore some important effects such as nickel heating and line
opacities. The required observables are the plateau length (Δt)
and the absolute V magnitude MV at mid-plateau, and the photospheric velocity (uph ) also at mid-plateau. For SN 2009js, wehave Δt ≈111 ± 5.5 days. This is taken to be tPT (Equation (2)),
assuming that the plateau begins after the initial rise of a few
days (which we do not probe), and also includes the uncertainty
on the determination of the explosion epoch. MV = −15.2 ±0.3 at an epoch of 55 days. The absence of spectroscopic monitoring means that uph at mid-plateau is unknown, but the good
spectral template match to SN 2005cs (cf. Section 4.3) suggeststhat using an identical velocity evolution is a reasonable way toproceed. Interpolating the Sc ii velocity evolution for SN 2005cs
found by Pastorello et al. (2009) at an epoch of about +55 days,
we find uph ∼1600 km s−1 to which we assign a generous systematic uncertainty of 400 km s−1 to account for the absence ofobservations for SN 2009js.18 This yields

Early-time photometry previously reported constrains the
explosion epoch of SN 2009js to MJD 55109.94 ± 5.5 days
(Section 4.1).
Kanata optical monitoring shows SN 2009js to have characteristics typical for a Type IIP event (Section 4.2). The characteristic plateau length (as measured by the mid-point of thetransition between plateau and nebular phases) is 111 days
(Section 3.3). Line-of-sight extinction is found to be
AV (Galaxy) ≈ 0.95 mag (Section 3.1) and AV (host galaxy) =0.18 ± 0.38 mag (Section 3.2), i.e., the reddening local to the
SN is lower than that due to our Galaxy.
Subaru optical spectroscopy shows a very good match to thespectrum of the well-studied subluminous Type IIP SN 2005cs(Section 3.5). These facts suggest that SN 2009js was an
SN 2005cs-like event (Section 4.3).
We are able to chart the evolution of the photospheric temperature and optical bolometric power of SN 2009js (Section 4.2).
The plateau-phase luminosity of SN 2009js is higher than thatof SN 2005cs, but significantly lower than normal Type IIP
events such as SN 1999em (Figure 6) and SN 1999gi (Figure 8).
Some other differences with respect to SN 2005cs are also noted(Section 4.3.1). The initial post-peak adiabatic phase cooling isless prominent than in SN 2005cs, as quantified by a new parameter ΔlogL, which measures the difference in log luminosities
at peak and 50 days post-peak. Moreover, the plateau length of
SN 2009js is significantly shorter than in SN 2005cs, and moresimilar to that of the intermediate luminosity event SN 2008in.
The absolute mid-plateau luminosity of SN 2008in also closely
matches that of SN 2009js. On the other hand, SN 2008in showsa significantly higher nebular luminosity, as well as a larger cooling dip ΔlogL. In addition, its photospheric velocity determinedfrom spectroscopy is significantly higher than SN 2005cs andSN 2009js. These facts imply that SN 2009js has characteristics common to both subluminous and intermediate luminosity
events.
The mass of synthesized radioactive 56 Ni is found to be
0.004–0.011 M (Section 4.4). This is similar to the synthesis
in other subluminous events.
Using known analytical relations, a low explosion energy E =0.14 ± 0.11 foe is derived. This is lower than for SN 2008in,within the caveats of using analytical relations. The constraints

E = 0.14 ± 0.11 foe(8)

Mej = 8.9 ± 4.8 M

(9)Rpre-SN = 415 ± 340 R .

(10)

The ejecta mass is about 9 M . Adding about 1 M for stellar
wind mass losses and another 1.4 M for the compact remnant
18 Such an uncertainty would also encompass the Fe ii velocity observed by

19 Keeping the caveat in mind that the E estimate is quite sensitive to u , forphRoy et al. (2011) for SN 2008in at a similar epoch, at the 2σ confidence level.

which we do not have a direct measurement.

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Gandhi et al.

on the ejecta mass (8.9 ± 4.8 M ) and progenitor mass, aswell as on the explosion energy, are fully consistent with thosederived for SN 2005cs using similar methods (Section 4.6).
SN 2009js is the first subluminous (or intermediate luminosity) SN to be studied in the mid-infrared (MIR). Spitzer
detected SN 2009js serendipitously at a very early epoch, and
WISE monitored the field on three occasions to an epoch of about+470 days. A significant MIR excess above the photosphere isfound at 4.6 μm at an epoch of ∼107 days post-discovery. A
tentative dust model fit implies a mass of amorphous carbonaceous dust of about 3 × 10−5 M , and a low efficiency of dust
heating as compared to SN 2004dj (Section 4.5). Alternatively,
this may be a sign of fundamental CO molecular emission which
is a precursor to dust formation.
Low luminosity events constitute only a few percent of theType II SN population (e.g., Pastorello et al. 2004), and few
studies exist on how these connect to the “normal” population.
Our observations of SN 2009js thus add to the list of sourcesin this class with relatively well-sampled multi-wavelength
light curves and provide first insight into their mid-infrared
properties.

using the DAOPHOT package in iraf.20 We also observed PG
0231+051 as a standard star field from the Landolt standard starcatalog (Landolt 1992) when the night was photometric. The
magnitudes of local comparison stars21 and the color terms were
calibrated using these standard stars. Photometric uncertainties
include Poisson measurement error and standard deviation
resulting from calibration against different comparison stars.
Zero points are those from the canonical filter definitions ofBessell et al. (1998).
A.2. NTT Late-time Optical Imaging
NTT/EFOSC was used for observing SN 2009js on 2010
October 6.22 Observing conditions were cloudy with a medianseeing of about 1. 9 in the V band. A series of five consecutive
exposures (100 s each, giving a total exposure time per filterof 500 s) were taken in V RI starting at UT05:53 at a median
airmass of 1.48.
Reduction was carried out using the EFOSC2 pipeline andstandard procedures for analysis (Izzo 2011). The reduced
exposures were combined to a cleaned final image. Since thesource is relatively faint at this late epoch, the background
was carefully measured using adjacent apertures that include
emission from the sky as well as the underlying host galaxy.
No photometric standard star observations were obtained thatnight. We therefore carried out relative photometry with respect
to nearby comparison stars, and then tied the absolute calibration
to the Kanata data using stars common to the Kanata and NTT
images. This also alleviates the issue of small differences infilter response between the V RI filters of the two telescopes.
The resultant photometry is listed in Table 1.

P.G. acknowledges a JAXA International Top Young Fellowship. T.J.M. is supported by the Japan Society for the Promotionof Science Research Fellowship for Young Scientists (23·5929).
This research is supported by the World Premier International
Research Center Initiative, MEXT, Japan. We thank the referee
for their report, which helped to streamline the text flow, correct
important typos, and to make the discussion more robust.
This publication makes use of data products from the Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a joint project of the
University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, and NEOWISE,
which is a project of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California
Institute of Technology. WISE and NEOWISE are funded by
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This work
is based in part on observations made with the Spitzer Space
Telescope, obtained from the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science
Archive, both of which are operated by the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract
with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
This research has made use of SAOImage DS9 (Joye &Mandel 2003), developed by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. This research has made use of NASA’s Astrophysics
Data System Bibliographic Services.

A.3. Early Filterless Photometry
In addition to the above data sets that we analyzed, we also
made direct use of pre-discovery and discovery photometry
reported in CBET 1969 (Nakano et al. 2009; Silverman et al.
2009). These data were obtained in filterless CCD mode andare listed at the top of Table 1. Although unfiltered CCDs havebroad response functions, their effective central wavelengths
are typically close to that of the V band. Riess et al. (1999)
have determined cross-calibration equations between unfiltered
and V-band photometry, based on the B − V color. Although
we do not know the SN colors at the discovery epoch, the first
Kanata measurements corrected for reddening (see Sections 3.1
and 3.2) imply B − V ≈ 0.3, as expected for a hot blackbody
characterizing the early-time SN spectrum. Using Equation (3)of Riess et al. (1999) and the transformation constant from
Table 2 therein implies that the unfiltered mag is expected to bewithin 0.1 mag of the V-band mag. We thus use the unfilteredmags directly as a proxy for the V band, with a systematic
uncertainty of 10%.

APPENDIX AOPTICAL PHOTOMETRY
A.1. Kanata Optical Imaging

APPENDIX B

The 1.5 m Kanata telescope (Uemura & Kanata Team 2009),
part of the Higashi-Hiroshima Observatory located at an altitudeof 503 m above sea level, is used by our group for regularmonitoring of SNe. HOWPol BV RC IC imaging provides a 15
diameter field of view at a pixel scale of 0. 29.
Monitoring started on 2009 October 14.8 at an epoch of+3.4 days and continued for about four months. A total of 25
epochs of data on different nights were obtained during thistime.
The images were reduced according to normal procedures
for CCD photometry. We performed PSF fitting photometry

OPTICAL SPECTROSCOPY
SN 2009js was observed on UT 2009 October 27 (MJD =55131.6), about 16 days post-discovery, with the Subaru telescope equipped with FOCAS (Kashikawa et al. 2002). The blue
20 http://iraf.noao.edu
21 These stars have the following IDs in the USNO-B1.0 survey (Zacharias

et al. 2004): 1084-0033855, 1084-0033919, and 1085-0027773.
22 Based on observations obtained during ESO program 184.D-1140(E); PI: S.

Benetti.

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Gandhi et al.

(3800–7000 Å) and red (6000–10000 Å) parts of the spectrum
were taken separately. The blue part was taken with the 300B
grism without an order-cut filter, while the red part was takenwith the 300R grism with the O58 filter. These configurations
give a wavelength resolution of 10 Å (500 km s−1 near the centerof the spectrum, R = λ/Δλ  600). For both settings, we useda center slit of 0. 8 width. The target was integrated for 600 s
in both settings. The typical seeing during the observations was
0. 8 in the V band, with median airmass of about 1.65. Reduction
was carried out in iraf. Wavelength calibration was performed
using the Th-Ar arc lamp. Flux calibration was carried out using
spectrophotometric star observations on the same night. Finally,
the blue and red parts of the spectrum were combined.

C.2. WISE Mid-infrared Imaging
The WISE satellite (Wright et al. 2010) carried out sky surveys
in four bands (W1–W4 centered on wavelengths of ≈ 3.4, 4.6,
12, and 22 μm, respectively), at an effective angular resolutionof ≈ 6 in W1–W3, and 12 in W4. Based on the cryogen status,
the publicly released data products are divided into (1) an all-sky
release, (2) a three-band cryo release, and (3) a NEOWISE postcryo release. Combined, these cover the period of 2010 January 7
to 2011 February 1.25 The sensitivity in the two short wavelength
bands (W1 and W2) did not change dramatically with time,
whereas the nominal sensitivities in W3 and W4 are degradedin the latter two releases. As of mid-2012, Atlas images as wellas catalogs of measured positions, fluxes, and other parametersof pipeline-detected sources are available for the all-sky release.
These are the product of co-addition of several frames and haveundergone multiple levels of calibration; they are referred to as
Level 3 (L3) products. For the post-cryo data, only a preliminary
release is available, including individual single-pass calibrated(level 1; L1b) data. SN 2009js is not included in the catalog ofpipeline-detected sources of any release.26
Available WISE images for the field of NGC 918 cover threemain epochs, starting from about 107 days after the discovery of
SN 2009js. Subsequent epochs are separated by approximately
six months. These are detailed in Table 2. No pre-explosion
WISE image for subtraction is available, so photometry at theposition of the SN was carried out directly on Atlas and postcryo images covering the SN position.
For the fully calibrated Atlas products, we used procedures
recommended by the WISE team.27 Small aperture photometry was carried out at the SN position as well as on brightnearby field stars with cataloged magnitudes used for relative
calibration. The background was carefully selected using multiple adjacent apertures in order to avoid other point sources
while encompassing local host galaxy emission. Aperture corrections as well as correlated and confusion noise estimation
for uncertainty measurements were included according to the
instructions in the WISE explanatory supplement.28 Magnitudes
were converted to fluxes using standard zero points (Wrightet al. 2010).
The publicly released Atlas (L3) image is made by co-additionof multiple exposures obtained in 2010 January, plus some
exposures taken in 2010 August. We also produced our own
co-added images for each of the three main epochs, startingfrom the L1b frames. First, the L1b data were sieved by removalof low quality frames affected by elevated background due tothe Moon’s proximity and other artifacts.29 The swarp package(Bertin et al. 2002) was then used for background subtracting,

APPENDIX CINFRARED PHOTOMETRY
C.1. Spitzer Mid-infrared Imaging
Archival MIR imaging data of NGC 918 are available fromthe Spitzer archive in both IRAC1 and IRAC2 bands. These
were taken in late 2009, a few months into the warm mission
phase. The instrument point response functions are complex,
but imaging quality is better than 2 in terms of equivalent
Gaussian FWHM measurements.23 Level 2 post-BCD IRAC
mapping mosaics from the post-cryogenic phase of the mission,
processed by standard pipeline software version S18.12.0, were
downloaded and directly used for the present analysis.
Spitzer happened to observe the galaxy at epochs of about−35 days and +2 days. For each of the IRAC1 and IRAC2
bands, the pre-explosion epoch image was subtracted from thepost-discovery one to remove background structured emission
from the host galaxy. Source photometry was carried out in thissubtracted image using a large aperture to encompass the total
flux. Conversion from image units to final fluxes was done using
standard procedures and conversion factors.24 As a cross-check,
we also carried out detection of all sources within a few arcminof the host galaxy nucleus using the SExtractor package (Bertin& Arnouts 1996) and computed a zero point for each image
based upon cross-calibration with objects common to the WISE
all-sky catalog for which all magnitudes are publicly available.
The bandpass difference between IRAC1 and WISE W1 is small
and was ignored (Jarrett et al. 2011). Similarly, IRAC2 andWISE W2 bandpass differences were ignored. We found ourcross-check to be consistent with the direct Spitzer photometry.
The log of observations is listed in Table 2, images arepresented in Figure 1, and photometry tabulated in Table 3.
Non-detection upper limits in the pre-explosion images were
determined by the addition of artificial point sources using the
addstar routine in iraf. This procedure involved generation ofa PSF from nearby stars of known magnitude, followed by an
iterative procedure of injecting scaled versions of the PSF into
the co-added images at the position of the SN and running
automatic source detection using the SExtractor package(Bertin & Arnouts 1996) to determine the faintest reliableartificial source detection for which we assumed a 2σ detection
threshold.

25 http://wise2.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/release/allsky/expsup/
26 In fact, it turns out that SN 2009js was detected by the standard WISE
pipeline on a single (L1b) exposure observed on MJD 55222.707859. The
unique detection identifier source_id = 01305a135-002325. The cataloged
mags are W1 = 14.632 ± 0.086 and W2 = 14.038 ± 0.198. However, we donot believe these to be reliable because the detections are reported only for theL1b catalog, but do not appear in the final (L3) catalog obtained after image
combination. Given the short integrations of the single exposures (7.7 s), thisdoes not appear to be consistent. Instead, we believe this detection to be that of
a clumpy region of the host galaxy spiral arm itself. This is consistent with thefact that the pipeline-reported goodness-of-fit reduced χ 2 values for the
profile-fit photometry of the single detection are bad (≈4.3 and 2.4 for W1 andW2, respectively).
27 http://wise2.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/release/allsky/expsup/sec2_3f.html
28 Ibid.
29 http://wise2.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/release/allsky/expsup/
sec1_4d.html#lowqual_images

23 http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/SPITZER/docs/irac/iracinstrumenthandbook/5
24 http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/SPITZER/docs/irac/iracinstrumenthandbook/IRAC_Instrument_Handbook.pdf

14

The Astrophysical Journal, 767:166 (15pp), 2013 April 20

Gandhi et al.

resampling, shifting, and median combining the good frames.
Upper limits were determined identically as with Spitzer.
Final images from the various WISE epochs are shown in
Figure 2 and photometry is listed in Table 3.

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