Spectroscopic classification of AT2018avk as a likely SLSN I
ATel #11648; Matt Nicholl, Sebastian Gomez, Peter Blanchard, Edo Berger (Harvard/CfA)
on 16 May 2018; 20:47 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Supernovae
Credential Certification: Matt Nicholl (matt.nicholl@cfa.harvard.edu)
Subjects: Optical, Supernovae
We obtained an optical spectrum of AT2018avk using the Blue Channel Spectrograph mounted on the 6.5m MMT Telescope (3400-8400 angstroms). AT2018avk was reported to the Transient Name Server (https://wis-tns.weizmann.ac.il/) by the ESA Gaia Photometric Science Alerts Team and DPAC (http://gsaweb.ast.cam.ac.uk/alerts). From host galaxy emission lines in our spectrum, we measure a redshift of z=0.132. At this redshift, the most recent Gaia observation corresponds to an absolute magnitude of -20.65 mag. Cross-correlation using SNID (Blondin & Tonry, 2007, ApJ, 666, 1024) returns good matches to a Type Ic supernova around maximum light, consistent with a Type I SLSN a few weeks after maximum. Further observations are underway.
IAU name | Survey name | RA (J2000) | DEC (J2000) | Obs. Date | Disc. Date | Disc. Mag | z | Type | Phase
AT2018avk | Gaia18ayq | 13:11:27.75 | +65:38:17.16 | 20180512 | 20180414 | 18.63 (G) | 0.132 | Ic / SLSN | post-max
