2010ApJ...712.1057B

We present new Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) images of supernova (SN) 1986J, taken at 5, 8.4, and 22 GHz between t = 22 and 25 yr after the explosion. The shell expands {vprop}t ^0.69±0.03. We estimate the progenitor's mass-loss rate at (4-10)x10^–5 M_☉/yr (for v_w= 10 km/s). Two bright spots are seen in the images. The first, in the northeast, is now fading. The second, very near the center of the projected shell and unique to SN 1986J, is still brightening relative to the shell, and now dominates the VLBI images. It is marginally resolved at 22 GHz (diameter ∼0.3 mas; ∼5x10¹⁶ cm at 10 Mpc). The integrated VLA spectrum of SN 1986J shows an inversion point and a high-frequency turnover, both progressing downward in frequency and due to the central bright spot. The optically thin spectral index of the central bright spot is indistinguishable from that of the shell. The small proper motion of 1500±1500 km/s of the central bright spot is consistent with our previous interpretation of it as being associated with the expected black-hole or neutron-star remnant. Now, an alternate scenario seems also plausible, where the central bright spot, like the northeast one, results when the shock front impacts on a condensation within the circumstellar medium (CSM). The condensation would have to be so dense as to be opaque at cm wavelengths (∼10³x denser than the average corresponding CSM) and fortuitously close to the center of the projected shell. We include a movie of the evolution of SN 1986J at 5 GHz from t = 0 to 25 yr.