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.
