DRAFT
2020-09-22 10:01:27
Type: Object/s-Discovery/Classification
ATLAS20bbhp (AT2020toc): discovery of a candidate supernova in UGC 4433 (91 Mpc)
Authors: S. Srivastav, K. W. Smith, O. McBrien, S. J. Smartt, J. Gillanders, P. Clark, M. Fulton, D. O'Neill, D. R. Young, M. McCollum (Queen's University Belfast), T.-W. Chen (Stockholm), J. Anderson (ESO), L. Denneau, A. Heinze, J. Tonry, H. Weiland (IfA, University of Hawaii), B. Stalder (LSST), A. Rest (STScI), D. E. Wright (University of Minnesota)
Source Group: ATLAS
Keywords: Supernova
Abstract:
Here we report the ATLAS discovery of the transient ATLAS20bbhp (AT2020toc) in galaxy UGC 4433 at magnitude o = 18.33 +/- 0.13. At a distance of 91 Mpc, the transient was discovered on MJD = 59109.61 (2020-09-17.61) with an absolute magnitude of M = -16.3 +/- 0.2. Spectroscopic classification is encouraged.

ATLAS is a twin 0.5m telescope system on Haleakala and Mauna Loa which is robotically surveying the sky above declination -40 with a cadence of 2 days (Tonry et al. 2018, PASP,130:064505). Two filters are used, cyan and orange (denoted c and o; all mags quoted are in the AB system). While carrying out the primary mission for Near Earth Objects, we search for and publicly report stationary transients to the IAU Transient Name Server.  Data processing is carried out at Queen's University which combines automated source parameter filtering, machine learning image recognition, and spatial cross-matching with astronomical catalogues (Smith et al. 2020, PASP, 132:085002). More information is on the ATLAS homepage. We are submitting AstroNotes for transients that are either within 100 Mpc, or have some other interesting feature to bring to the community's attention, such as bright nuclear transients, slowly rising or rapidly fading objects.

We report a new transient source, most likely a supernova in the galaxy UGC 4433. We discovered ATLAS20bbhp (AT2020toc) on MJD 59109.61 == 2020-09-17.61, at m_o = 18.33 +/- 0.13. There are no recent nondetections since the object is emerging from behind the Sun, implying this could be an old transient. ATLAS20bbhp is offset by 7.2 arcsec north, 12.1 arcsec west from its likely host galaxy UGC 4433, which is at z = 0.021 or d = 91 Mpc (from NED), implying an absolute magnitude of M = -16.3 (assuming m-M = 34.80 and A_r = 0.11 and A_i = 0.08). Followup observations are encouraged.  

This work has made use of data from the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) project. ATLAS is primarily funded to search for near earth asteroids through NASA grants NN12AR55G, 80NSSC18K0284, and 80NSSC18K1575; byproducts of the NEO search include images and catalogs from the survey area.  The ATLAS science products have been made possible through the contributions of the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, the Queen's University Belfast, and the Space Telescope Science Institute. 

Show current TNS values
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 2020toc [ATLAS20bbhp] 08:28:30.129 +17:28:08.99 08:28:30.140 +17:28:08.57 SN II 0.02106

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