A Scattered Light Echo around SN 1993J in M81

A light echo around SN 1993J was observed 8.2 years after explosion by a HST WFPC2 observation, adding to the small family of supernovae with light echoes. The light echo was formed by supernova light scattered from a dust sheet, which lies 220 parsecs away from the supernova, 50 parsecs thick along the line of sight, as inferred from radius and width of the light echo. The dust inferred from the light echo surface brightness is 1000 times denser than the intercloud dust. The graphite to silicate fraction can not be determined by our BVI photometric measurements, however, a pure graphite model can be excluded based on comparison with the data. With future observations, it will be possible to measure the expansion rate of the light echo, from which an independent distance to M81 can be obtained