Spectroscopic classification of Gaia16alf
ATel #8973; F. Onori (SRON), M. Fraser (IoA), P. Jonker (SRON), L. Wyrzykowski (Warsaw), N. Blagorodnova (Caltech), S. Mattila (IoA/Turku)
on 20 Apr 2016; 14:11 UT
Credential Certification: Morgan Fraser (mf@ast.cam.ac.uk)
Subjects: Optical, Supernovae, Transient
We report the spectroscopic classification of Gaia16alf, from medium resolution (R~1000; 330-990nm) spectra taken with the William Herschel Telescope + ISIS + R300B/R158R on the night of 2016 April 19.
The spectrum is consistent with that of a Type Ia SN a few days before maximum light at a redshift of z=0.094. The redshift is determined from narrow Halpha and [NII] lines of the host galaxy, and is in agreement with the value reported in SDSS. We note that Gaia16alf appeared coincident with the nucleus of its host, 2MASX J16401616+2246580 in the original Gaia discovery data. Our spectrum
of the SN is significantly contaminated by the nucleus of the host galaxy, which also fell into the slit.
We acknowledge ESA Gaia, DPAC and the Photometric Science Alerts Team (http://gsaweb.ast.cam.ac.uk/alerts).
