2010ApJ...725.1768F

This paper presents late-time near-infrared and 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 that the warmer dust has a mass of ∼5x10^–4 M_☉, originates from newly formed dust in the ejecta, or possibly the cool, dense shell, and is continuously heated by the circumstellar interaction. By contrast, the cooler component likely originates from a circumstellar shock echo that forms from the heating of a large, pre-existing dust shell ∼0.01-0.05 M_☉ by the late-time circumstellar interaction. The progenitor wind velocity derived from the blue edge of the He I 1.083 µm P Cygni profile indicates a progenitor eruption likely formed this dust shell ∼100 years prior to the supernova explosion, which is consistent with a Luminous Blue Variable progenitor star.