Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) arise from the thermonuclear explosions of white dwarfs in multiple-star systems. A rare subclass of SNe Ia exhibit signatures of interaction with circumstellar material (CSM), allowing for direct constraints on companion material. While most known events show evidence for dense nearby CSM identified via peak-light spectroscopy (as SNe Ia-CSM), targeted late-time searches have revealed a handful of cases exhibiting delayed CSM interaction with detached shells. Here we present the first all-sky search for late CSM interaction in SNe Ia using a new image subtraction pipeline for mid-infrared data from the NEOWISE space telescope. Analyzing a sample of ≈8500 SNe Ia, we report evidence for late-time mid-infrared brightening in five previously overlooked events spanning subtypes SNe Iax, SNe Ia-91T, and super-Chandra SNe Ia. Our systematic search doubles the known sample and suggests that ≳0.05% of SNe Ia exhibit mid-infrared signatures of delayed CSM interaction. The mid-infrared light curves ubiquitously indicate the presence of multiple (or extended) detached CSM shells located at ≳1016–1017 cm, containing 10−6 to 10−4 M⊙ of dust, with some sources showing evidence for new dust formation, possibly within the cold, dense shell of the ejecta. We do not detect interaction signatures in spectroscopic and radio follow-up; however, the limits are largely consistent with previously confirmed events given the sensitivity and observation phase. Our results highlight that CSM interaction is more prevalent than previously estimated from optical and ultraviolet searches and that mid-infrared synoptic surveys provide a unique window into this phenomenon.
A Diverse, Overlooked Population of Type Ia Supernovae Exhibiting Mid-infrared Signatures of Delayed Circumstellar Interaction
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1.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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2.
University of California, Berkeley
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3.
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
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4.
Stockholm University
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5.
California Institute of Technology
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6.
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
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7.
The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI
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8.
Monash University
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Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
Abstract
Copyright and License
© 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Acknowledgement
We would like to acknowledge useful discussions with Melissa Graham, Wenbin Lu, Ken Shen, Joel Johansson, and Kiyoshi Masui. We thank Kristin Chiboucas for her excellent support with Gemini observations. G. M. acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation and the LIGO Laboratory. K. D. was supported by NASA through the NASA Hubble Fellowship grant No. HST-HF2-51477.001 awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract NAS5-26555. K. D. acknowledges support from an MIT Kavli Institute Fellowship. D. F.'s contribution to this material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. AST-2401779.
This work is based on observations obtained at the international Gemini Observatory, a program of NSF NOIRLab, which is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the US National Science Foundation on behalf of the Gemini Observatory partnership: the US National Science Foundation (United States), National Research Council (Canada), Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (Chile), Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnologìa e Innovación (Argentina), Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações (Brazil), and Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (Republic of Korea). This work was enabled by observations made from the Gemini North telescope, located within the Maunakea Science Reserve and adjacent to the summit of Maunakea. We are grateful for the privilege of observing the Universe from a place that is unique in both its astronomical quality and its cultural significance.
This Letter includes data gathered with the 6.5 m Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
Facilities
NEOWISE - , Gemini:Gillett - Gillett Gemini North Telescope (GMOS), VLA - Very Large Array, Magellan:Baade (FIRE - , FourStar) - , PO:1.2 m (ZTF) - , ATLAS - , Gaia - , Spitzer. -
Software References
astropy (T. P. Robitaille et al. 2013), matplotlib (J. D. Hunter 2007), numpy (C. R. Harris et al. 2020), pandas (The Pandas Development Team 2024; W. McKinney 2010), pypeit (J. Prochaska et al. 2020), scipy (P. Virtanen et al. 2020).
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Additional details
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- HST-HF2-51477.001
- Space Telescope Science Institute
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- NAS5-26555
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- MIT Kavli Institute Fellowship -
- National Science Foundation
- AST-2401779
- Accepted
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2025-01-29Accepted
- Available
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2025-02-17Published
- Caltech groups
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)
- Publication Status
- Published