The intrinsic frequency of faint supernovae resembling SN 1987A

Abstract

view Abstract Citations (12) References (15) Co-Reads Similar Papers Volume Content Graphics Metrics Export Citation NASA/ADS The Intrinsic Frequency of Faint Supernovae Resembling SN 1987A van den Bergh, Sidney ; McClure, R. D. Abstract The visual supernova search program by Evans, that was undertaken during the period 1980-1988, is used to place constraints on the frequency of intrinsically faint supernovae resembling SN 1987A. For Hubble parameters of 50, 75, and 100 km s^-1^ Mpc^-1^, we find that the frequency of such objects is 0.0-0.4, 0.0-0.4, and 0.0-0.3 per century per 10^10^L_B_(_sun_), respectively, in an average Shapley-Ames galaxy. This compares to a frequency of (1.0 +/- 0.3)h^2^ per century per 10^10^L_B_(_sun_) found previously for SN II with more nearly normal luminosities. This indicates that the intrinsic frequency of faint supernovae similar to SN 1987A is probably not significantly larger than that of SN II with more nearly normal luminosities. It is suggested that the relatively low intrinsic frequency of objects resembling SN 1987A is due to the fact that the progenitors of such supernovae have to be metal-poor to explode while they are blue supergiants. Only a small fraction of all presently forming massive young stars will occur in low-luminosity galaxies in which the metallicity is sufficiently small to produce subluminous supernovae of Type II. Publication: The Astrophysical Journal Pub Date: December 1989 DOI: 10.1086/185599 Bibcode: 1989ApJ...347L..29V Keywords: Faint Objects; Stellar Evolution; Supernova 1987a; Light Curve; Metallicity; Stellar Luminosity; Stellar Mass; Astrophysics; STARS: STELLAR STATISTICS; STARS: SUPERNOVAE full text sources ADS | data products NED (10) SIMBAD (8)