PTF 10fqs: A LUMINOUS RED NOVA IN THE SPIRAL GALAXY MESSIER 99

Journal Article · Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/730/2/134· OSTI ID:21574824

Kasliwal, Mansi M; Kulkarni, Shri R; Quimby, Robert M; Ofek, Eran O ^[1]; Arcavi, Iair; Gal-Yam, Avishay; Green, Yoav; Yaron, Ofer ^[2]; Nugent, Peter; Jacobsen, Janet; Poznanski, Dovi ^[3]; Fox, Derek B; Howell, Jacob L ^[4]; Bradley Cenko, S; Kleiser, Io; Bloom, Joshua S; Miller, Adam; Weidong, Li; Filippenko, Alexei V; Starr, Dan ^[5]

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1. Cahill Center for Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
2. Benoziyo Center for Astrophysics, Faculty of Physics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100 (Israel)
3. Computational Cosmology Center, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
4. Astronomy and Astrophysics, Eberly College of Science, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)
5. Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411 (United States)

The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) is systematically charting the optical transient and variable sky. A primary science driver of PTF is building a complete inventory of transients in the local universe (distance less than 200 Mpc). Here, we report the discovery of PTF 10fqs, a transient in the luminosity 'gap' between novae and supernovae. Located on a spiral arm of Messier 99, PTF 10fqs has a peak luminosity of M{sub r} = -12.3, red color (g - r = 1.0), and is slowly evolving (decayed by 1 mag in 68 days). It has a spectrum dominated by intermediate-width H{alpha} ({approx}930 km s{sup -1}) and narrow calcium emission lines. The explosion signature (the light curve and spectra) is overall similar to that of M85 OT2006-1, SN 2008S, and NGC 300 OT. The origin of these events is shrouded in mystery and controversy (and in some cases, in dust). PTF 10fqs shows some evidence of a broad feature (around 8600 A) that may suggest very large velocities ({approx}10,000 km s{sup -1}) in this explosion. Ongoing surveys can be expected to find a few such events per year. Sensitive spectroscopy, infrared monitoring, and statistics (e.g., disk versus bulge) will eventually make it possible for astronomers to unravel the nature of these mysterious explosions.

• OSTI ID: 21574824
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 730, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/730/2/134; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
GALAXIES
LUMINOSITY
NOVAE
SUPERNOVAE
BINARY STARS
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
STARS
VARIABLE STARS