Radio show for rare type Ia | Nature Astronomy


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Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Type Ia supernovae (SNe) are thermonuclear explosions that result from the accretion of mass onto a white dwarf (WD), but the nature of the


mass donor is not clear. The donor could be a normal, non-degenerate star (called the ‘single-degenerate scenario’) or another white dwarf (‘double-degenerate scenario’). Erik Kool and


colleagues have detected radio emission from SN 2020eyj that purportedly arises from the SN ejecta impacting into circumstellar material that was lost from the mass-donor prior to explosion,


indicating a single-degenerate scenario. It is the unusual properties of SN 2020eyj that allowed such a clear identification — the signs of circumstellar interaction did not appear in


spectra until approximately day 50 after explosion, enabling a type Ia SN classification using a spectrum taken on day 25. A later spectrum, taken on day 131, has hallmarks of a very


different kind of SN: a type Ibn SN, which involves the core-collapse of a massive star. Emission lines in the late-time spectra reveal characteristics of the circumstellar medium, and thus


the mass-losing donor star: it was helium-rich. Therefore the progenitor system to SN 2020eyj was probably a WD + He star binary, a previously hypothesized formation channel for type Ia SNe


that might contribute ~10% of all single-degenerate type Ia SNe. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your institution Access


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INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Nature Astronomy https://www.nature.com/natureastronomy Paul Woods Authors * Paul Woods View author publications You can also search for this author


inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Paul Woods. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Woods, P. Radio show for rare


type Ia. _Nat Astron_ 7, 513 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01989-9 Download citation * Published: 19 May 2023 * Issue Date: May 2023 * DOI:


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