We announce the first observations from C-SNAILS: the Classification Survey for NucleAr transients with Liverpool and LaSair.
Targets are selected automatically from the Zwicky Transient Facility public alerts stream (Kulkarni 2018) using the Lasair broker (Smith, Williams, Young et al. 2019) and observed spectroscopically using SPRAT (Piascik et al. 2014) on the Liverpool Telescope (Steele et al. 2004). Classifications were done using DASH (Muthukrishna et al. 2019), SNID (Blondin & Tonry 2007) and GELATO (Harutyunyan et al. 2008)
Our initial observations include 1 AGN, 1 SN Ia, and 1 likely SLSN IIn. Additionally, we have identified 4 nuclear transients showing relatively featureless blue continua, at z~0.07-0.15. Follow-up of these sources is encouraged.
AT2019meg is particularly interesting as it has an absolute peak magnitude of -20.1 mag, and exhibits a possible bump or plateau in the early ZTF light curve.
| Catalog | Name | Reported RA | Reported DEC | Reported Obj-Type | Reported Redshift | Host Name | Host Redshift | Remarks | TNS RA | TNS DEC | TNS Obj-Type | TNS Redshift |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TNS | 2019meh [ZTF19abclykm] | 21:27:17.452 | +64:24:59.17 | SLSN-II | 0.093 | Narrow/intermediate width Balmer and He I emission. Correcting for Galactic extinction Av~2mag gives a blue continuum and a peak luminosity ~ -22.5 mag | 21:27:17.450 | +64:24:59.18 | SLSN-II | 0.0935 | ||
| TNS | 2019mei [ZTF19abcudso] | 19:57:19.998 | +09:31:32.35 | AGN | 0.212 | 19:57:20.000 | +09:31:32.41 | AGN | 0.212 | |||
| TNS | 2019lky [ZTF19abgjlef] | 00:29:47.679 | +17:33:26.90 | SN Ia | 0.058 | 00:29:47.679 | +17:33:26.90 | SN Ia | 0.058 | |||
| TNS | 2019lby [ZTF19abfpvle] | 21:14:04.522 | -11:35:26.83 | SN I | 0.1 | Redshift from template matching. DASH prefers an SN Ib classification, but good matches are also found with SNe Ia. Spectrum includes substantial host contribution. | 21:14:04.522 | -11:35:26.83 | ||||
| TNS | 2019lse [ZTF19abhisnk] | 01:54:50.725 | +41:05:48.32 | Other | 0.079 | Blue continuum, host emission lines | 01:54:50.725 | +41:05:48.32 | ||||
| TNS | 2019mal [ZTF19abidfsb] | 23:09:06.584 | -17:40:27.34 | Other | 0.076 | Blue continuum, host emission lines | 23:09:06.581 | -17:40:27.23 | SN Ia | 0.083 | ||
| TNS | 2019meg [ZTF19abhhjcc] | 18:45:16.178 | +44:26:19.14 | Other | 0.152 | Blue continuum, host emission lines. At this redshift the transient has an absolute mag ~ -20.1. Early light curve may exhibit a bump/plateau. | 18:45:16.180 | +44:26:19.21 | ||||
| TNS | 2019lwu [ZTF19abidbya] | 23:11:12.315 | -01:00:10.80 | Other | Blue continuum, agrees with ePESSTO+ observations (AstroNote #2019-58) | 23:11:12.305 | -01:00:10.71 | TDE | 0.117 |