PESSTO spectroscopic classification of optical transients
ATel #8155; H. Campbell (Cambridge), J. Lyman (Warwick), M. Fraser (Cambridge), A. De Cia (ESO), T.-W. Chen (Bonn), I. Manulis (Weizmann), S. C. Williams (LJMU), C. Inserra (QUB), K. Maguire (QUB), S. J. Smartt (QUB), K. W. Smith (QUB), M. Sullivan (Southampton), S. Valenti (LCOGT), O. Yaron (Weizmann), D. Young (QUB)
on 12 Oct 2015; 15:19 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Transients
Credential Certification: Morgan Fraser (mf@ast.cam.ac.uk)
Subjects: Optical, Supernovae, Transient
PESSTO, the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey for Transient Objects (see Smartt et al. 2015, A&A, 579, 40 http://www.pessto.org ), reports the following supernova classifications.
Targets were supplied by the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae ASAS-SN (see Shappee et al. 2014, ApJ, 788, 48 and http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~assassin/index.shtml ), and the CBAT Transient Objects Confirmation Page (http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/unconf/tocp.html).
All observations were performed on the ESO New Technology Telescope at La Silla on 2015 Oct. 11, using EFOSC2 and Grism 13 (3985-9315A, 18A resolution), Grism 11 (3380-7520A, 13A resolution) and Grism 16 (6015-10320A, 13A resolution). Classifications were done with SNID (Blondin & Tonry, 2007, ApJ, 666, 1024) and GELATO (Harutyunyan et al., 2008, A&A, 488, 383). Classification spectra can be obtained from http://www.pessto.org (via WISeREP).
Name | RA (J2000) | Dec (J2000) | Disc. Date | Disc. Source | Disc Mag | z | Type | Phase | Notes
TCPJ17344775-2409042 | 17:34:47.74 | -24:09:04.2 | 2015-10-11 | TOCP | 11.8 | - | Stellar | - | (1)
ASASSN-15qy | 00:01:18.25 | -33:21:02.7 | 2015-10-11 | ASASN-SN | 16.9 | 0.03 | Ia | -3d |
(1) The spectrum is very red, with prominent narrow P-Cygni profiles of H, Ca, Na, along with many weaker absorption lines at zero redshift. The absorption minima of the lines are unresolved at ~<850 km/s. There is a cataloged IRAS source within 7" of the transient position, although given the transient lies <5 deg. from the plane, this could be a chance alignment. The spectral features are seen in Fe II novae, although these are typically much bluer, and so the source would most likely be heavily extinguished in this case. There are also some similarities to FU Orionis stars in outburst.
