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WISE Detections of Luminous Red Novae

ATel #3160; D. Hoffman (IPAC/Caltech), R. M. Cutri (IPAC/Caltech), M. M. Kasliwal (Caltech), F. Masci (IPAC/Caltech), T. Jarrett (IPAC/Caltech), T. Conrow (IPAC/Caltech), G. Helou (IPAC/Caltech), S. R. Kulkarni (Caltech), J. Surace (IPAC/Caltech)
on 11 Feb 2011; 17:34 UT
Credential Certification: Douglas Hoffman (dhoffman@ipac.caltech.edu)

Subjects: Infra-Red, Supernovae, Transient

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE; Wright et al. 2010) obtained flux density measurements of five of the six currently known members of the class of objects known as Luminous Red Novae (LRNe; Kulkarni et al. 2007): SN2008S (Botticela et al. 2010), NGC300-OT-2008 (Bond et al. 2009), PTF10fqs (Kasliwal et al. 2010), SN2010dn (Itagaki et al. CBET 2299), and PTF10acbp (Kasliwal et al. 2010, ATEL #3094). Inspired by the WISE detection of PTF10acbp (ATEL #3099), we examined the WISE data for all extragalactic LRNe.

WISE scanned the position of SN2008S 44 times between June 6 and June 20, 2010 during the WISE cryogenic survey, and again 50 times between December 12 and December 17, 2010 during the NEOWISE postcryogenic survey. The images during each epoch were coadded together. The transient was detected during the June 2010 epoch at 3.4 and 4.6 microns with flux densities of 86 +/- 35 microJy and 239 +/- 37 microJy, respectively. The LRN was only detected at 4.6 microns during the December epoch with a flux density of 183 +/- 33 microJy, while the 3-sigma upper limit at 3.4 microns was 48 microJy.

NGC300-OT-2008 remains quite luminous in the mid-IR. It was observed by WISE 21 times between June 15 and June 17, 2010 and again 18 times between December 10 and December 14, 2010. The December observations were during postcryogenic operations. During June, it was detected in all the WISE bands at 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 microns. The measured flux densities at these wavelengths were 913 +/- 34 microJy, 2786 +/- 62 microJy, 3684 +/- 170 microJy, and 3578 +/- 903 microJy, respectively. During the December epoch, the measured flux densities at 3.4 and 4.6 microns were 337 +/- 29 microJy and 1358 +/- 39 microJy, respectively.

WISE observed PTF10fqs 16 times between June 13 and June 19, 2010 and again 16 times between December 19 and December 27, 2010. Both epochs are after outburst. Due to the high surface brightness of the host galaxy and a nearby bright neighbor, a reliable upper limit flux density could not be obtained for the second epoch, and no point source is visible. A point source is clearly detected in the difference image of the June and December data. We measure a flux density of 190 +/- 17 microJy and 232 +/- 27 microJy at 3.4 and 4.6 microns, respectively.

SN2010dn was observed by WISE 16 times between May 5 and May 6, 2010 and again 13 times between November 12 and November 13, 2010. The November epoch was during the postcryogenic operations. The May observations were prior to outburst and no progenitor is seen in the coadded image. The transient is clearly detected in the difference image of the epoch coadds at both 3.4 and 4.6 microns. The measured flux densities are 202 +/- 21 microJy and 314 +/- 31 microJy at 3.4 and 4.6 microns, respectively. The measured WISE flux densities at the distance of the host galaxy NGC 3184, ~11.5Mpc, suggest a luminosity of 7.8e5 L_Sun, which is consistent with the luminosity of other LRNe and inconsistent with the Luminous Blue Variable hypothesis (Smith et al. 2010).

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NEOWISE is a project of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the Planetary Science Division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.