SN 2023ixf provided the earliest ever detection of shock breakout from a supernova. The red supergiant progenitor star had a radius of about 440 solar radii. Early observations revealed that the light curves evolved very rapidly (timescales of 1-2 hours), appearing fainter and redder than models predicted. The study authors attribute this to an optically thick dust shell surrounding the star that was destroyed as the shockwave passed through. Based on the best fit models, the study authors conclude that the shock breakout, and possibly the dust shell itself, were not spherically symmetric.

Publications:

• Li et al., "A Shock Flash Breaking Out of a Dusty Red Supergiant", Nature 627, pages 754-758 (2024)


• Kilpatrick et al. (2023) "SN 2023ixf in Messier 101: A Variable Red Supergiant as the Progenitor Candidate to a Type II Supernova", 2023 ApJL 952 L23


• Grefenstette et al., "Early Hard X-rays from the Nearby Core-Collapse Supernova SN2023ixf", 2023 ApJL 952 L3

Acknowledgements: Illustration from A. Singh et al. (arXiv:2405.20989). Podcast created with Google/NotebookLM.