DRAFT
2020-01-24 14:49:10
Type: Object/s-Discovery/Classification
ATLAS20cvy (AT2020aqe): discovery of a candidate supernova in NGC 3836 (53 Mpc)
Authors: F. Lyons (Our Lady and Saint Patrick's College, Knock), J. Gillanders, K. W. Smith, S. Srivastav, O. McBrien, S. J. Smartt, 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, H. Flewelling, 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 ATLAS20cvy (AT2020aqe) in galaxy NGC 3836. At a distance of 53 Mpc, the transient was discovered on MJD = 58867.58 (2020-01-19.58) with an absolute magnitude of M = -14.3 +/- 0.21.

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, 13, 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. 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 NGC 3836. We discovered ATLAS20cvy (AT2020aqe) on MJD 58867.58 (2020-01-19.58), at a mean m_o = 19.44 +/- 0.21. There were some non-detections on this night, due to the detections being close to the detection threshold. However, the object has since risen 0.94 mag in 4 days. There was no detection by ATLAS on MJD 58851.65 == 2020-01-03.65.  ATLAS20cvy is offset by 8.92 arcsec south, 0.27 arcsec west from its likely host galaxy NGC 3836, which is at z = 0.012 or d = 52.8 Mpc (from NED), implying an absolute magnitude of M = -14.3 (assuming m-M = 33.61 and A_r = 0.09 and A_i = 0.07). 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 2020aqe [ATLAS20cvy] 11:43:29.781 -16:47:52.94 0.012 11:43:29.760 -16:47:53.16 SN II 0.012255

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