Early Evolution of Nearby Supernovae:
Early Evolution of Nearby Type Ia Supernovae
(Probing the nature of the progenitors of thermonuclear supernovae)
ESO runs
(ESO Period 65 run: April 1, 2000 - September 30, 2000)
(ESO Period 66 run: October 1, 2000 - March 31, 2001)
(ESO Period 67 run: April 1, 2001 - September 30, 2001)
(ESO Period 68 run: October 1, 2001 - March 31, 2002)
(ESO Period 69 run: April 1, 2002 - September 30, 2002)
(ESO Period 70 run: October 1, 2002 - March 31, 2003)
(ESO Period 71 run: April 1, 2003 - September 30, 2003)
(ESO Period 72 run: October 1, 2003 - March 31, 2004)
(ESO Period 73 run: April 1, 2004 - September 30, 2004)
(ESO Period 75 run: April 1, 2005 - September 30, 2005)
Investigators: P. Lundqvist (PI), S. Mattila, J. Sollerman,
E. Baron, P. Ehrenfreund, C. Fransson, B. Leibundgut, K. Nomoto
& The SN Ia RTN team
Subaru runs
Investigators: P. Lundqvist (PI), S. Mattila, K. Nomoto, J. Sollerman,
H. Ando, J. Deng, P. Ehrenfreund, C. Fransson, R. Kotak, K. Maeda, A. Tajitsu, H. Terada
Last updated - June11, 2005
by Peter Lundqvist, peter@astro.su.se
[Proposal Abstract]
[The ESO/UVES instrument], [The Subaru instruments]
[Observed Events: SN 2000cx, SN 2001el, SN 2001ig, SN 2003bg, SN 2003hn, SN 2004et]
[Alert Systems]
Proposal Abstract:
Early high-resolution spectroscopy is essential for our
understanding of Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia). These thermonuclear SNe
have an unknown origin, but presumably it involves mass transfer from a
companion star onto the progenitor white dwarf. Early detection of the wind in
such a binary system would be a break-through in our understanding of
SN Ia. As the line widths of the narrow wind lines could be considerably
less than 100 km/s, high-resolution spectra are needed.
Very early observations are essential because the dense circumstellar gas will
be overrun quickly, and the contrast of the line emission relative to the
supernova decreases with time as the supernova gets brighter. The proposed
study is a continuation of an ongoing ToO program, but we now stretch
the probing of wind material into a new and fainter regime. As a spin-off, the
program also offers a unique way to probe interstellar absorption lines
and Diffuse Interstellar Bands (DIBs) in external galaxies.
ESO Instrumentation:
UVES
is a two-arm crossdispersed echelle spectrograph covering the wavelength
range 300 - 500 nm (blue) and 420 - 1100 nm (red), with the possibility to
use dichroics. The spectral resolution for a 1" slit is about 40,000.
The maximum resolution that can be attained with still adequate sampling,
using a narrow slit, is about 110,000 in the red and 80,000 in the blue.
UVES sits normally on VLT/UT2.
ESO's UVES page
Subaru Instrumentation:
The High Dispersion Spectrograph (HDS)
on the Subaru telescope, located at
the Optical Nasmyth platform of the telescope, provides optical spectroscopy
in the range 3 000 - 10 000 Angstroms, with a spectral resolution of up to
160,000; this is the highest resolution of any optical spectrograph on an
8-10m class telescope.
The Subaru IRCS provides possibility to do infrared echelle spectroscopy.
In the zJ band a resolution of 19,000-22,600 can be obtained in the 1.02-1.18
micron range, covering the He I 10830 line.
Supernovae studied:
ESO Period 65 program run: SN 2000cx (Type Ia) was observed by us on the nights July 19/20 (about 1 week before maximum) and July 24/25 (just before maximum), 2000.
For information see Dave Bishop's SN 2000cx page, IAU Circ. 7458, IAU Circ. 7463, and BVRI lightcurves by Kevin Krisciunas
Papers: Li et al. (2001, PASP) (has good lightcurves etc.),
Rudy et al. (2002, ApJ) (includes early IR spectra)
Our papers: Lundqvist et al. (2003, Conference paper)
ESO Period 66 program run: No supernova was observed.
ESO Period 67 program run: SN 2001el (Type Ia) in NGC 1448 (recession velocity 1164 km/s) was observed by us on the nights September 20/21 (more than 1 week before maximum), 26/27 and 28/29 (close to maximum), 2001. (See VSNet lightcurve)
For information see Dave Bishop's SN 20001el page, IAU Circ. 7720, and our identification of SN 2001el as a Type Ia in IAU Circ. 7723.
Papers: Krisciunas et al. (2003, AJ) (optical/IR photometry), Wang et al. (2003, ApJ) (optical, spectropolarimetry)
Our papers: Lundqvist et al. (2004, Conference paper)
ESO Period 68 program run: SN 2001ig (Type IIb?) in NGC 7424 (recession velocity 942 km/s) was observed by us on the nights December 13/14 (Dic 2), Dec 14/15 (Dic 1) and Dec 22/23 (Dic 1), 2001.
For information see Dave Bishop's supernova page and IAU Circ. 7772
ESO Period 69 program run: No supernova was observed.
ESO Period 70 program run: SN 2003bg (Type II, but with similarities to Ic) in MCG -05-10-15 (recession velocity 1367 km/s) was observed by us on the night between February 28 and March 1, 2003.
For information see Dave Bishop's supernova page, IAU Circ. 8082, IAU Circ. 8084 and IAU Circ. 8088.
ESO Period 71 program run: SN 2003hn (Type II) in NGC 1448 (recession velocity 1164 km/s) was observed by us on the night August 31/September 1. (Note, same galaxy as SN 2001el.)
For information see Dave Bishop's supernova page, IAU Circ. 8186 and IAU Circ. 8187
ESO Period 72 program run: No supernova was observed.
ESO Period 73 program run: No supernova was observed
ESO Period 75 program run: Running
Subaru Semester S04A program run: SN 2004et (Type II) in NGC 6946 (recession velocity 48 km/s) was observed by us on the night September 29/30.
Subaru Semester S04B program run: No supernova was observed
Subaru Semester S05A program run: Running
Alert Systems:
The following alert systems have agreed to provide early warnings:
The Beijing Astronomical Observatory Search
The EROS Project
The IAU Circulars (local use only.) Special early warning thanks to CBAT.)
The Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT)
The Nearby Galaxies Supernova Search (NGSS)
The Perth Supernova Search
The SuperNova Early Warning System (SNEWS). (Based on neutrino signals.)
