DISCOVERY OF MOLECULAR HYDROGEN IN SN 1987A

Both CO and SiO have been observed at early and late phases in SN 1987A. H2 was predicted to form at roughly the same time as these molecules, but was not detected at early epochs. Here, we report the detection of NIR lines from H2 at 2.12 and 2.40 μ m in VLT/SINFONI spectra obtained between days 6489 and 10,120. The emission is concentrated to the core of the SN in contrast to Hα and approximately coincides with the [Si i]/[Fe ii] emission detected previously in the ejecta. Different excitation mechanisms and power sources of the emission are discussed. From the nearly constant H2 luminosities, we favor excitation resulting from the 44 Ti decay.