Nova M101-1997-02 is not the progenitor of PTF11kly, the recent type Ia supernova in M101
ATel #3598; A. W. Shafter (SDSU), G. Nelemans (Radboud U. Nijmegen)
on 26 Aug 2011; 23:25 UT
Credential Certification: Allen W. Shafter (aws@nova.sdsu.edu)
Subjects: Optical, Nova, Supernovae
The position (R.A. = 14:03:05.81, Decl. = +54:16:25.4) of the recent type Ia supernova in M101, PTF11kly (Nugent et al., ATel #3581), is within ~8 arc sec of the published position (R.A. = 14:03:06.7, Decl. = +54:16:25) of a recorded nova in M101 (M101-1997-02) reported by Shafter et al. (2000, ApJ, 530, 193). Given the possibility that there may have been a small error in the reported position of the nova (and therefore that the nova and supernova positions could be coincident), we have compared the original discovery image for the nova from 16 March 1997 UT with recent images of the supernova field. The comparison reveals that the nova position reported in Shafter et al. (2000) is accurate, and that the nova and supernova are not spatially coincident. Thus, nova M101-1997-02 cannot be the progenitor of PTF11kly.
A.W.S. thanks the NSF for support through AST-1009566.
A comparison of the positions of M101-1997-02 and PTF11kly
