Lumnious Optical Transients and their Progenitors
Abstract
For the past three years the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (CRTS) has been surveying tens of thousands of square degrees of the sky for transient astrophysical events while openly publishing all discoveries as soon as they are made. Among the more than 3000 transients discovered to date 700 are supernovae. These objects include a distinct class of extremely energetic supernovae believed to result from the deaths of massive stars, such as Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs). The recent CRTS discovery of CSS100217 in an active NLS1 galaxy has doubled the limit on the brightest and most energetic supernova known. Such unexpected events challenge our understanding of the environment and nature of supernovae and their hosts. The characterization of such transients, their hosts, and their progenitors is important to our understanding of the physics of stellar and galactic evolution. This proposal is for spectroscopic follow-up of optical transients including the luminous supernovae, tidal disruption events and outbursting extra-galactic LBVs that are currently being discovered in CRTS data.
- Publication:
-
NOAO Proposal
- Pub Date:
- August 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011noao.prop..458D