Discovery of two new supernovae and an AGN outburst by PS1

ATel #2716; E. Kankare, S. Mattila (Tuorla Observatory, University of Turku / Queen's University Belfast), S. Valenti, S. Smartt, D. Young, K. Smith (Queen's University Belfast), R. Chornock (CfA), A. Edge (University of Durham), F. Bresolin, R. Kudritzki, J. Tonry, P. A. Price, E. Magnier, K. Chambers, N. Kaiser, J. Morgan, W. Burgett, J. Heasley, W. Sweeney, C. Waters, H. Flewelling (Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii)
on 2 Jul 2010; 20:31 UT
Credential Certification: Seppo Mattila (s.mattila@qub.ac.uk)

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We report the discovery of two spectroscopically-confirmed Supernovae PS1-1000302 and PS1-1000303, and an AGN outburst PS1-1000305 in the Pan-STARRS1 "3Pi Faint galaxy supernova survey". PS1-1000302 was detected on June 12.4 UT (g=18.5) at 16:33:43.094 +54:42:04.18 (J2000) located 1.1" from the center of the host galaxy SDSS J163343.08+544205.4. PS1-1000303 was detected on June 14.3 UT (g=19.2) at 17:11:52.827 +43:36:57.06 (J2000) located 0.4" from the center of the host galaxy SDSS J171152.82+433656.7. Low-resolution spectra of PS1-1000302 and PS1-1000303 were obtained on June 30 UT with the Nordic Optical Telescope (+ ALFOSC; range 320-910 nm). The spectra were cross-correlated with a library of supernova spectra using the "SNID" code (Blondin & Tonry 2007, ApJ, 666, 1024). This shows the spectrum of PS1-1000302 to closely match that of the type-Ia supernova 1989B ~10 days after maximum light at redshift z = 0.061 and the spectrum of PS1-1000303 to be similar to the type-Ia supernova 2003du ~18 days after maximum light at redshift z = 0.126. Using distance moduli of 37.12 and 38.79 we derived absolute magnitudes of -16.3 and -17.0 for the host galaxies of PS1-1000302 and PS1-1000303, respectively. PS1-1000305 was detected on May 19.3 UT (r=19.3) at 15:28:44.18 +42:57:22.62 (J2000) located 0.3" from the center of the host galaxy SDSS J152844.16+425722.5. The spectrum obtained with the Nordic Optical Telescope on June 13.1 UT shows a very blue continuum with a broad emission line (FWHM ~7000 km/s) at 495 nm identified as a Mg II line at redshift z = 0.77 associated with an AGN outburst. We estimate an absolute magnitude of -22.1 for the host galaxy and -24.0 for the outburst. These discoveries were enabled using the PS1 System operated by the PS1 Science Consortium (PS1SC) and its member institutions, http://www.ps1sc.org/PS1_System_ATel.htm . We would like to thank the PS1 telescope operators for their support of PS1 observations.