Dr. Franz Bauer
Columbia
University of Florida Astronomy Colloquium - March 25th, 2009
SN1996cr: SN1987A's Wild Cousin?
SN1996cr is the one of the five closest SNe to explode in the past 30 yr, yet lay undiscovered for many years. Due to its fortuitous location in the Circinus Galaxy, we have a wealth of serendipitous archival data available to piece together its early evolution. Like SN1987A, it appears to have exploded into a wind-blown bubble structure, sparking a unique temporal evolution. SN1996cr, however, is several orders of magnitude more luminous and a factor of several more compact, making it a compelling object in its own right. I'll describe current multi-wavelength constraints on SN1996cr and the physical interpretations they lead to. I will also highlight how future observations and hydrodynamical modeling should refine our understanding, setting strong constraints on the structure of the nebula established by the progenitor winds and, by extension, the evolution of the progenitor itself.