AstroNote 2024-340

On 2024-11-08 05:20:20 UT,  ZTF24abrfcqd / SN 2024aaqp was reported to TNS by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) at a discovery magnitude of m_g = 19.6 (TNS Discovery Report 232004). Over the subsequent week, SN 2024aaqp brightened to m_r = 17.6 mag.

On 2024-11-15 04:43 UT, we obtained a classification spectrum of SN 2024aagp during the first commissioning run of the Next Generation Palomar Spectrograph (NGPS) on the Palomar 200-in Hale Telescope (TNS Classification Report No. 18714). The spectrum shows a broad Si II absorption feature commonly observed in Type Ia supernovae. The Si II 6355 absorption minimum corresponds to a velocity of approximately 12,500  km/s. Comparison with the NGSF (NextGeneration SuperFit; Astronote 2022-191, Howell et al. 2005) spectral library indicates a match to several normal Ia SNe, including SN 2011by, SN 2011fe, roughly 2–5 days before peak brightness.  Based on host galaxy emission lines in the NGPS spectrum, we derive a redshift of 0.045. 

NGPS is a new medium-resolution, single-object, long-slit optical spectrograph on the Palomar 200-in Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory. NGPS replaces the Double Beam Spectrograph (DBSP; Oke & Gunn 1982), the workhorse Palomar 200-in optical spectrograph for four decades. NGPS is designed to be over a factor of three higher throughput than DBSP.  NGPS is a partnership between Caltech, Peking University, the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The NGPS team acknowledges generous support from Caltech, the National Science Foundation (2018866), the Heising Simons Foundation (2020-1865), Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB0550100), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11927804).