Discovery of a possible supernova in PGC 2086067
Jennifer Andrews, Peter Milne, Max Moe, Dave Sand, Nathan Smith (University of Arizona)
The AZTEC (Arizona Transient Exploration and Characterization) collaboration reports the discovery of an optical transient in PGC 2086067. The object, located at RA 08:00:05.41, Dec +36:45:18.54, was detected in three r-band images taken with the MMT telescope (+ Binospec instrument) on UT 2018 November 5.45 (MJD 2458427.5). The detection was confirmed with V and R imaging on the Kuiper 61-inch telescope (+ Mont4k imager) on UT 2018 November 6.5. Previous images of the galaxy taken by our group in 2015 and 2016 do not reveal an object at that location. The transient has an apparent magnitude of r = 20.85 mags. Using a Virgo + GA only distance modulus of 36.08 mag and a foreground extinction of A_r = 0.12 mag from NED gives an absolute magnitude of M_r = -15.3. This suggests the transient could be a lower luminosity supernova near peak, or a normal supernova some time before or after peak. Spectroscopic follow-up is encouraged for the classification of this object.
optical,supernovae,transient