Dust and Molecular Formation in Supernovae

Abstract

Up to 1987, supernovae (SNe) and supernova remnants (SNRs) had been thought to be hostile environments for molecules and dust grains. Fast-moving electrons in young SNe can destroy molecules, and strong X-ray radiation and shocks can destroy molecules and dust grains in SNRs. That concept was broken by detection of CO, SiO, and dust thermal emission in Supernova 1987A. Since 1987, the number of studies which have found molecules and dust in SNe and SNRs is slowly increasing. Detecting molecules can be a powerful tool to investigate dynamical motion, density, temperature, and chemistry. Dust formation can affect the thermal balance in SNe and SNRs, and radiation from dust grains can be about as high as 50 % of the cooling of the expanding ejecta. Isotopologues are molecules that differ only in respect to the isotopes of some of the constituent elements. Isotopologues found in SNe and SNR probe isotopes that can be compared with predictions of explosive nucleosynthesis. Because SNe are a major source of heavy elements, if a significant fraction of refractory elements condense into dust grains, SNe can be an important source of the dust in the interstellar medium of galaxies. In this review, the discovery of molecules and dust in SNe and SNRs and their implications are summarised.