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Discovery of a Luminous Supernova, PTF10vqv

ATel #2979; R. M. Quimby, S. Kulkarni, E. Ofek, M. M. Kasliwal (Caltech), A. Gal-Yam, S. Ben-Ami, C. Badenes, A. Sternberg (Weizmann Institute), J. Botyanszki (Berkeley), P. E. Nugent (LBL), D. A. Howell (LCOGT/UCSB), on behalf of the PTF Collaboration
on 28 Oct 2010; 04:02 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Supernovae
Credential Certification: Robert Quimby (quimby@astro.as.utexas.edu)

Subjects: Optical, Supernovae, Transient

We report the discovery of an optical transient, PTF10vqv, in R-band images obtained with the 1.2-m Oschin telescope at Palomar Observatory in the course of the Palomar Transient Factory survey (Law et al., 2009; Rau et al., 2009). The transient is located at RA = 03:03:06.84 DEC = -01:32:34.9 (J2000). On Sep 16.52 UT, the object was detected at about 20.2 mag (calibrated to SDSS r-band). A co-addition of images taken between 2009 Aug and 2009 Sep shows nothing at this location.

Optical spectra (390-840 nm) obtained with the KPNO 4m telescope (+RC Spectrograph) on Oct 11 shows a blue continuum with at least one narrow emission line. Short of about 4200 A, the flux drops off in the blue. A second spectrum (320-1000 nm) was obtained with the 5.1-m Palomar telescope (+DBSP) on Oct 17. These data confirm the KPNO results. Identifying narrow emission lines from H-beta and OIII, we derive a redshift of z=0.452. The spectra, including the broad absorption feature in the blue, are similar to PTF09cnd near maximum light (Quimby et al. 2009).

A stacked image created through the co-addition of 109 images (RG610 filter) taken by the Palomar-Quest Consortium at the Palomar Oschin Schmidt telescope (obtained from Aug. 2001 - Jul. 2007), reveals a faint source at magnitude 23.6 +/-0.3, calibrated relative to the SDSS r-band, at the location of PTF10vqv. If this is the host of the SN, it is at an absolute magnitude of -18.4. This image is available from Deep Sky.