In this paper we report the results of the first ~four years of spectroscopic and photometric monitoring of the Type IIn supernova SN 2015da (also known as PSN J13522411+3941286, or iPTF16tu). The supernova exploded in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 5337 in a relatively highly extinguished environment. The transient showed prominent narrow Balmer lines in emission at all times and a slow rise to maximum in all bands. In addition, early observations performed by amateur astronomers give a very well-constrained explosion epoch. The observables are consistent with continuous interaction between the supernova ejecta and a dense and extended H-rich circumstellar medium. The presence of such an extended and dense medium is difficult to reconcile with standard stellar evolution models, since the metallicity at the position of SN 2015da seems to be slightly subsolar. Interaction is likely the mechanism powering the light curve, as confirmed by the analysis of the pseudo bolometric light curve, which gives a total radiated energy >~10^51^erg. Modeling the light curve in the context of a supernova shock breakout through a dense circumstellar medium allowed us to infer the mass of the prexisting gas to be ~=8M_{sun}_, with an extreme mass-loss rate for the progenitor star ~=0.6M_{sun}_/yr, suggesting that most of the circumstellar gas was produced during multiple eruptive events. Near- and mid-infrared observations reveal a fluxexcess in these domains, similar to those observed in SN 2010jl and other interacting transients, likely due to preexisting radiatively heated dust surrounding the supernova. By modeling the infrared excess, we infer a mass >~0.4x10^-3^M_{sun}_ for the dust.
Temporal variability of narrow absorption lines in high-resolution spectra of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) is studied to search for circumstellar matter. Time series which resolve the profiles of absorption lines such as NaI D or CaII H&K are expected to reveal variations due to photoionisation and subsequent recombination of the gases. The presence, composition, and geometry of circumstellar matter may hint at the elusive progenitor system of SNe Ia and could also affect the observed reddening law. To date, there are few known cases of time-varying NaI D absorption in SNe Ia, all of which occurred during relatively late phases of the supernova (SN) evolution. Photoionisation, however, is predicted to occur during the early phases of SNe Ia, when the supernovae peak in the ultraviolet. We attempt, therefore, to observe early-time absorption-line variations by obtaining high-resolution spectra of SNe before maximum light We have obtained photometry and high-resolution spectroscopy of SNe Ia 2013gh and iPTF 13dge, to search for absorption- line variations. Furthermore, we study interstellar absorption features in relation to the observed photometric colours of the SNe. Results. Both SNe display deep NaI D and CaII H&K absorption features. Furthermore, small but significant variations are detected in a feature of the NaI D profile of SN 2013gh. The variations are consistent with either geometric effects of rapidly moving or patchy gas clouds or photoionisation of NaI gas at R~=10^19^cm from the explosion. Our analysis indicates that it is necessary to focus on early phases to detect photoionisation effects of gases in the circumstellar medium of SNe Ia. Different absorbers such as NaI and CaII can be used to probe for matter at different distances from the SNe. The nondetection of variations during early phases makes it possible to put limits on the abundance of the species at those distances.
The IRAS 16362-4845 star-forming site in the RCW 108 complex contains an embedded compact cluster that includes some massive O-type stars. Star formation in the complex, and in particular in IRAS 16362-4845, has been proposed to be externally triggered by the action of NGC 6193. We present a photometric study of the IRAS 16362-4845 cluster sensitive enough to probe the massive brown dwarf regime. In particular, we try to verify an apparent scarcity of solar-type and low-mass stars reported in a previous paper (Comeron et al., 2005A&A...433..955C).
We present BVRI photometry of 180 bright, southern nearby-star candidates. The stars were selected from the New Luyten Two-Tenths proper-motion catalog (Cat. <I/98>) based on optical/infrared colors, constructed by combining Luyten's m_r_ estimates with near-infrared photometry from the Two Micron All Sky Survey (Cat. <B/2mass>) . Photometric parallaxes derived from V-Ks, V-I, and I-J colors, combined with the limited available astrometry, show that as many as 108 stars may lie within 20pc of the Sun. Of these, 53 are new to nearby-star catalogs, including three within 10pc of the Sun.
Up until around 1980, the Stingray was an ordinary B1 post-AGB star, but then it suddenly sprouted bright emission lines like in a planetary nebula (PN), and soon after this the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) discovered a small PN around the star, so apparently we have caught a star in the act of ionizing a PN. We report here on a well-sampled light curve from 1889 to 2015, with unique coverage of the prior century plus the entire duration of the PN formation plus three decades of its aftermath. Surprisingly, the star anticipated the 1980s ionization event by declining from B=10.30 in 1889 to B=10.76 in 1980. Starting in 1980, the central star faded fast, at a rate of 0.20mag/yr, reaching B=14.64 in 1996. This fast fading is apparently caused by the central star shrinking in size. From 1994 to 2015, the V-band light curve is almost entirely from the flux of two bright [OIII] emission lines from the unresolved nebula, and it shows a consistent decline at a rate of 0.090mag/yr. This steady fading (also seen in the radio and infrared) has a timescale equal to that expected for ordinary recombination within the nebula, immediately after a short-duration ionizing event in the 1980s. We are providing the first direct measure of the rapidly changing luminosity of the central star on both sides of a presumed thermal pulse in 1980, with this providing a strong and critical set of constraints, and these are found to sharply disagree with theoretical models of PN evolution.
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most luminous explosions in the Universe, yet the nature and physical properties of their energy sources are far from understood. Very important clues, however, can be inferred by studying the afterglows of these events. We present optical and X-ray observations of GRB 130831A obtained by Swift, Chandra, Skynet, Reionization And Transients Infra-Red camera, Maidanak, International Scientific Optical-Observation Network, Nordic Optical Telescope, Liverpool Telescope and Gran Telescopio Canarias. This burst shows a steep drop in the X-ray light curve at ~10^5^ s after the trigger, with a power-law decay index of {alpha}~6. Such a rare behaviour cannot be explained by the standard forward shock (FS) model and indicates that the emission, up to the fast decay at 10^5^ s, must be of "internal origin", produced by a dissipation process within an ultrarelativistic outflow. We propose that the source of such an outflow, which must produce the X-ray flux for ~1 d in the cosmological rest frame, is a newly born magnetar or black hole. After the drop, the faint X-ray afterglow continues with a much shallower decay. The optical emission, on the other hand, shows no break across the X-ray steep decrease, and the late-time decays of both the X-ray and optical are consistent. Using both the X-ray and optical data, we show that the emission after ~10^5^ s can be explained well by the FS model. We model our data to derive the kinetic energy of the ejecta and thus measure the efficiency of the central engine of a GRB with emission of internal origin visible for a long time. Furthermore, we break down the energy budget of this GRB into the prompt emission, the late internal dissipation, the kinetic energy of the relativistic ejecta, and compare it with the energy of the associated supernova, SN 2013 fu.
We present a large collection of photometric data on the blazar PKS 0537-441 in the VRIJHK bands taken in 2004-2009. At least three flare-like episodes with months duration and >3mag amplitude are apparent. The spectral energy distribution is consistent with a power law, and no indication of a thermal component is found. We searched for short timescale variability, and an interesting event was identified in the J band, with a duration of ~25 minutes.
We present the discovery and extensive early-time observations of the Type Ic supernova (SN) PTF12gzk. Our light curves show a rise of 0.8mag within 2.5hr. Power-law fits (f(t){prop.to}(t-t_0_)^n^) to these data constrain the explosion date to within one day. We cannot rule out a quadratic fireball model, but higher values of n are possible as well for larger areas in the fit parameter space. Our bolometric light curve and a dense spectral sequence are used to estimate the physical parameters of the exploding star and of the explosion. We show that the photometric evolution of PTF12gzk is slower than that of most SNe Ic. The high ejecta expansion velocities we measure (~30000km/s derived from line minima four days after explosion) are similar to the observed velocities of broad-lined SNe Ic associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) rather than to normal SN Ic velocities. Yet, this SN does not show the persistent broad lines that are typical of broad-lined SNe Ic. The host-galaxy characteristics are also consistent with GRB-SN hosts, and not with normal SN Ic hosts. By comparison with the spectroscopically similar SN 2004aw, we suggest that the observed properties of PTF12gzk indicate an initial progenitor mass of 25-35M_{sun}_ and a large ((5-10)x10^51^erg) kinetic energy, the later being close to the regime of GRB-SN properties.
We present the discovery of PS18kh, a tidal disruption event discovered at the center of SDSS J075654.53+341543.6 (d~322Mpc) by the Pan-STARRS Survey for Transients. Our data set includes pre-discovery survey data from Pan-STARRS, the All-sky Automated Survey for Supernovae, and the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System as well as high-cadence, multiwavelength follow-up data from ground-based telescopes and Swift, spanning from 56 days before peak light until 75days after. The optical/UV emission from PS18kh is well-fit as a blackbody with temperatures ranging from T~12000K to T~25000K and it peaked at a luminosity of L~8.8x10^43^erg/s. PS18kh radiated E=(3.45+/-0.22)x10^50^erg over the period of observation, with (1.42+/-0.20)x10^50^erg being released during the rise to peak. Spectra of PS18kh show a changing, boxy/double-peaked H{alpha} emission feature, which becomes more prominent over time. We use models of non-axisymmetric accretion disks to describe the profile of the H{alpha} line and its evolution. We find that at early times the high accretion rate leads the disk to emit a wind which modifies the shape of the line profile and makes it bell-shaped. At late times, the wind becomes optically thin, allowing the non-axisymmetric perturbations to show up in the line profile. The line-emitting portion of the disk extends from r_in_~60r_g_ to an outer radius of r_out_~1400r_g_ and the perturbations can be represented either as an eccentricity in the outer rings of the disk or as a spiral arm in the inner disk.
We present observations and interpretation of the Type IIn supernova SN 2008am discovered by the ROTSE Supernova Verification Project (RSVP). SN 2008am peaked at approximately -22.3mag at a redshift of z=0.2338, giving it a peak luminosity of ~3x10^44^erg/s and making it one of the most luminous supernovae ever observed. The host galaxy appears to be an SB1 of normal luminosity (M_r'_~-20) with metallicity Z~0.4Z_{sun}_. ROTSE upper limits and detections constrain the rise time to be ~34 days in the rest frame, significantly shorter than similar events, SN 2006gy and SN 2006tf. Photometric observations in the ultraviolet, optical, and infrared bands (J, H, Ks) constrain the spectral energy distribution evolution. We obtained six optical spectra of the supernova, five on the early decline from maximum light and a sixth nearly a year later plus a very late time spectrum (~2yr) of the host galaxy. The spectra of SN 2008am show strong Balmer-line and HeI5876 emission with intermediate widths (~25{AA}) in the first ~40 days after optical maximum.