Detection of the Progenitor of SN 2004et
ATel #492; W. Li and A. V. Filippenko (University of California, Berkeley); and S. D. Van Dyk (Spitzer Science Center, California Institute of Technology)
on 13 May 2005; 03:44 UT
Credential Certification: Weidong Li (weidong@astron.berkeley.edu)
Subjects: Optical, Supernovae
The site of the Type II SN 2004et in NGC 6946 has been imaged in
the Hubble Space Telescope Snapshot program GO-10272 (PI: A. V.
Filippenko) with the ACS/HRC on 2005 May 2 UT. A pair of CR-split
images was taken with each of the F435W and F625W filters, for a total
exposure time of 840 s and 360 s, respectively. SN 2004et is still
bright, with F435W = 18.07 mag and F625W = 15.36 mag.
Comparison of the ACS/HRC images with those obtained by the
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and analyzed by
W. Li, S. D. Van Dyk, A. V. Filippenko, & J.-C. Cuillandre
(2005, PASP, 117, 121) confirms their identification of the
progenitor of SN 2004et in the CFHT images. When the ACS/HRC
F435W image is geometrically transformed to match the best-seeing
CFHT images, the position of SN 2004et is consistent with the
progenitor in the CFHT image to within 0.056" +/- 0.043".
SN 2004et thus becomes one of the only a few core-collapse
supernovae whose progenitors have been directly identified.
