Discovery and Classification of Three Transients in the PS1 Sky Survey
ATel #2614; L. Magill, D. Young, S. Valenti, S. J. Smartt, K. Smith, M. T. Botticella (Queen's University Belfast), M. Huber (Johns Hopkins University), A. Rest, G. Narayan (Harvard/CfA), J. Tonry, P. A. Price (IfA, Hawaii), C. Stubbs (Harvard), A. Riess (JHU), W. M. Wood-Vasey (Univ. of Pittsburgh).
on 12 May 2010; 15:08 UT
Credential Certification: Stephen Smartt (s.smartt@qub.ac.uk)
Subjects: Optical, AGN, Supernovae, Transient
We report on the discovery and classification of three optical transients found with the Pan-STARRS Telescope #1 (PS1) sky survey.
ID |
RA |
Dec |
Disc. Date |
Disc. Mag |
PS1-1000249 |
10:00:44.00 |
+03:24:14.0 |
2010 April 1.88 |
21.3 (i) |
PS1-1000250 |
09:56:52.40 |
+02:35:47.7 |
2010 Feb. 22.08 |
22.1 (g) |
PS1-1000251 |
12:25:20.66 |
+46:00:54.7 |
2010 Feb. 25.54 |
22.0 (i) |
Spectra were taken of PS1-1000249, PS1-1000250, and PS1-1000251 on the ISIS spectrograph with the William Herschel Telescope on May 2.88, May 3.87 and April 1.07 respectively. PS1-1000249 is a type Ia SN similar to
SN2005G and simultaneous fitting of the supernova absorption features indicates a redshift of z ~ 0.22. Measuring the photometry from a pre-explosion PS1 reference image reveals that PS1-1000249 is hosted by a relatively faint galaxy (undetected in SDSS images) with a rest frame absolute magnitude of M_g ~ -17.8. The spectrum of PS1-1000250 reveals an almost featureless blue continuum with broad emission features at 4140 and 7210A. Attributing narrow lines present in the spectrum at 5518, 7342 and 7414A to the emission of [O II] 3727A and [O III] 4949, 5007A from the underlying host galaxy SDSS J095652.37+023547.2, we tentatively classify PS1-1000250 as a background AGN at z=0.48 attributing the broad emission features to the Mg II doublet and H beta. PS1-1000251 is a type Ia SN at z=0.12, classified at two weeks post maximum, in a spiral host SDSS J122520.40+460059.2. This announcement was enabled using the PS1 System operated by the PS1 Science Consortium (PS1SC) and its member institutions, and made possible through the PS1 Builders:
http://www.ps1sc.org/PS1_System_ATel.htm .