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ZTF18acbwfza: A rising transient in NGC 3729 at 21 Mpc

ATel #12162; K. De (Caltech), C. Fremling (Caltech), A. A. Miller (Northwestern), M. J. Graham (Caltech), S. M. Adams (Caltech), M. M. Kasliwal (Caltech), on behalf of a larger collaboration
on 3 Nov 2018; 03:33 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Supernovae
Credential Certification: Kishalay De (kde@astro.caltech.edu)

Subjects: Optical, Supernovae, Transient

The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF; ATel #11266) reports the discovery of ZTF18acbwfza (AT2018hso), a rising transient in NGC 3729 at 21.1 Mpc (Tully et al. 2009), at coordinates

11:33:51.96 +53:07:07.1 (J2000)
173.466512 +53.118638 (J2000)

The source was first detected on 2018-10-31.53 (UT) at r = 19.4 mag (absolute magnitude of M = -12.2), and has been rising at the rate of ~ 0.25 mag / day with g - r color ~ 0.5. Spectroscopic follow-up was obtained on 2018-11-02 UT with the GMOS on the Gemini-N telescope and with DBSP on the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar observatory. The early spectra exhibit intermediate width Balmer emission lines with FWHM of ~ 1000 km/s, consistent with a Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) outburst or a young SN IIn. Further photometric and spectroscopic follow-up is underway and encouraged.

ZTF is a project led by PI S. R. Kulkarni at Caltech (see ATEL #11266), and includes IPAC; WIS, Israel; OKC, Sweden; JSI/UMd, USA; UW,USA; DESY, Germany; NRC, Taiwan; UW Milwaukee, USA and LANL USA. ZTF acknowledges the generous support of the NSF under AST MSIP Grant No 1440341. Alert distribution service provided by DIRAC@UW. Alert filtering is being undertaken by the GROWTH marshal system, supported by NSF PIRE grant 1545949.