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Description
1987A-like events form a rare sub-group of hydrogen-rich core-collapse supernovae that are thought to originate from the explosion of blue supergiant stars. Although SN 1987A is the best known supernova, very few objects of this group have been discovered and, hence, studied. In this paper we investigate the properties of SN 2009E, which exploded in a relatively nearby spiral galaxy (NGC 4141) and that is probably the faintest 1987A-like supernova discovered so far. We also attempt to characterize this subgroup of core-collapse supernovae with the help of the literature and present new data for a few additional objects. The lack of early-time observations from professional telescopes is compensated by frequent follow-up observations performed by a number of amateur astronomers. This allows us to reconstruct a well-sampled light curve for SN 2009E. Spectroscopic observations which started about 2 months after the supernova explosion, highlight significant differences between SN 2009E and the prototypical SN 1987A. Modelling the data of SN 2009E allows us to constrain the explosion parameters and the properties of the progenitor star, and compare the inferred estimates with those available for the similar SNe 1987A and 1998A. The light curve of SN 2009E is less luminous than that of SN 1987A and the other members of this class, and the maximum light curve peak is reached at a slightly later epoch than in SN 1987A. Late-time photometric observations suggest that SN 2009E ejected about 0.04M_{sun}_ of ^56^Ni, which is the smallest ^56^Ni mass in our sample of 1987A-like events. Modelling the observations with a radiation hydrodynamics code, we infer for SN 2009E a kinetic plus thermal energy of about 0.6 foe, an initial radius of ~7x10^12^cm and an ejected mass of ~19M_{sun}_. The photospheric spectra show a number of narrow (v~1800km/s) metal lines, with unusually strong BaII lines. The nebular spectrum displays narrow emission lines of H, NaI, [CaII] and [OI], with the [OI] feature being relatively strong compared to the [CaII] doublet. The overall spectroscopic evolution is reminiscent of that of the faint ^56^Ni-poor type II-plateau supernovae. This suggests that SN 2009E belongs to the low-luminosity, low ^56^Ni mass, low-energy tail in the distribution of the 1987A-like objects in the same manner as SN 1997D and similar events represent the faint tail in the distribution of physical properties for normal type II-plateau supernovae.
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