Disentangling the Origin and Heating Mechanism of Supernova Dust: Late-Time Spitzer Spectroscopy of the Type IIn SN 2005ip

Understand

This paper presents late-time near-infrared and {\it Spitzer} mid-infrared photometric and spectroscopic observations of warm dust in the Type IIn SN 2005ip in NGC 2906.

• The spectra show evidence for two dust components with different temperatures.
• Spanning the peak of the thermal emission, these observations provide strong constraints on the dust mass, temperature, and luminosity, which serve as critical diagnostics for disentangling the origin and heating mechanism of each component.
• The results suggest the warmer dust has a mass of $\sim 5 \times 10^{-4}~$\msolar, originates from newly formed dust in the ejecta, or possibly the cool, dense shell, and is continuously heated by the circumstellar interaction.