We are carrying out the "Pan-STARRS Search for Kilonovae" which is a focused search for intrinsically faint transients, or rapidly evolving transients in galaxies which are closer than 200 Mpc in the ongoing Pan-STARRS Near Earth Object surveys (see Smartt et al. AstroNote 2019-48 for details).
In normal survey mode, Pan-STARRS takes 4 x 45s exposures in w, i or z each night reaching 5 sigma magnitudes of w<22, i<21 and z<20.5 in each frame (see Chambers et al. 2016, 1612.05560).
We report the discovery of an intrinsically faint transient PS19fpv (AT2019rho) in the host galaxy PGC 144639, at a redshift of z = 0.017 or d = 73 Mpc (from NED). The transient was discovered at MJD 58753.54 == 2019-09-27.54, at m_w = 18.13 +/- 0.02. It is offset from the host by 4.50" S, 0.10" W (a projected 1.6 kpc radius from the galaxy centre). At this distance the absolute magnitude is M_w = -16.23 (assuming m-M = 34.30 and foreground extinction of A_r = 0.056). We note a recent non-detection on 58752.53 by ATLAS at o < 19.8, implying this is young and intrinsically faint. Spectroscopic classification is encouraged.
Information on all objects discovered by the "Pan-STARRS search for kilonovae" will be made available at http://star.pst.qub.ac.uk/ps1threepi/. We will release AstroNotes for all these candidates and encourage spectroscopic classification or photometric follow-up. A finder is attached.
These discoveries are a byproduct of the Pan-STARRS NEO survey observations supported by the NASA Grants, including No. NNX14AM74G issued through the SSO Near Earth Object Observations Program.
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 | 2019rho [PS19fpv] | 02:12:49.194 | -06:42:06.00 | SN | 0.017 | 02:12:49.186 | -06:42:05.98 | SN II | 0.016965 |
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