New SN candidate just 4 arcmins from Eta C

[Weltevreden SA]

Greetings from across the pond, fellas. There is a story out on Universe Today (http://www.universetoday.com/107969/what-a-star-about-to-go-supernova-looks-like/) about a can-happen-anytime supernova progenitor in Carina that we all can keep our eye on while out observing. I dunno about you, but I check Eta Carinae every time I’m out j-u-s-t in case it decides to go SN while I’m out. (This could be awhile, up to 100,000 years, say the experts.) This new SN candidate is named SWB1, only 4 RA min W. and 4 Dec min S. of Eta Carina (actual: RA 10 40 18 Dec -59° 49 12.5”). It is in the nebular lobe directly across from the dust gulf that makes the Carina Neb so impressive. Track down the coordinates on WikiSky. Eta and this SN candidate, SWB1, fit comfortably in the field of a 70° AFOV eyepiece at 75x. SWB1 is ~20,000 light years out while M1 the Crab Nebula is 6500 LY away. If anyone gets lucky and happens to witness the first blast, you’ll likely be seeing it the same time the BOSS fellas do. For a better idea of what the blast wave will look like, see Figure 10 on p. 14 of this paper (http://arxiv.org/pdf/1211.4612v2.pdf).

Over here, tonight’s the first decent night in two weeks. Moon or no moon, I’m going to dadgum be out there until the roosters wake up.

=Dana in SA

[glend]

I just finished a session here from 3-4:30am which was mainly Mars and the Virgo galaxies but like you I always have a look around Eta Carinea as well. I did'n't notice the SN wave but I will keep an eye on it in coming days, weather permitting. The Kookaburras start the birds off here.

[mithrandir]

Dana, are those J2000 coordinates? If so that might make it UCAC4-151-055463

[Weltevreden SA]

Yes, Andrew, J2000. Impressive homework! I'm curious about the object name you ID'd. Which catalog were you using? Simbad's ID (http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-coo) for the object at those coordinates (10 40 18 -59 49 12.5) is 2MASS J18000950-5859007. The field shown has a radius of 2 arcmin and 4 IR sources are nearby. But there's no info on the object itself. The other ID cited is USNO-B1.0 0310-00697514. Four IR objects are within 1 arcmin, but no distances are provided. NED (http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/objsearch?search_type=Near+Position +Search&in_csys=Equatorial&in_equinox=J2000.0&lon=10+40+18&lat=-59+49+12.5&radius=2.0&hconst=73&omegam=0.27&omegav=0.73&corr_z=1&z_constraint=Unconstrained&z_value1=&z_value2=&z_unit=z&ot_include=ANY&nmp_op=ANY&out_csys=Equatorial&out_equinox=J2000.0&obj_sort=Distance+to+search+center&of=pre_text&zv_breaker=30000.0&list_limit=5&img_stamp=YES) comes up with 6 Xray sources near those coordinates. The source paper is arXiv:1211.4612.v2 (http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.4612). The authors use only the name SWB1, though the paper is richly detailed in other regards. The paper is longish but good read. One of the co-authors is David Arnett, who the book 'Supernovae and Nucleosynthesis (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=David+Arnett%2C+Supernovae +and+Nucleosynthesis)', the best I've seen on the subject.

If you spot the object could you tell us what you find. It's way too faint for my limited equipment. Cheers, Dana

[mithrandir]

Dana,
I opened http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR then put "2mass,ucac4" in the "find catalogs", "10 40 18 -59 49 12.5" in the "target", set the radius to 20 arcsec and clicked Go.

It gave me 9 objects in 2MASS and 5 in UCAC4. With a few more steps you can add NOMAD, but it seems to just return the same objects as 2MASS.

I have UCAC4 and NOMAD catalogs for CdC. These are the closest hits:
4UC 10h40m52.60s -59°53'30.6" * UCAC4-151-055463 mV:14.97 b-v: 0.72 pmRA: 14 [mas/y] pmDE: -24 [mas/y] flags: 0
nmd 10h40m52.66s -59°53'32.2" * nmd 0301-0207604 mV:13.08 mB: mR: pmRA: 16 [mas/y] pmDE: -42 [mas/y] date: 1968.30 Jmag:13.941 Hmag:13.692 Kmag:13.71

Those will be JNOW.

[Rob_K]

http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%5BSBW2007%5D+1

And another paper here (SBW1 = SBW2007):
http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-3881/134/2/846/pdf/1538-3881_134_2_846.pdf

Just for interest, DSS-coloured images that show the position are attached, sourced from Aladin (sorry about the jpeg compression, the wider one was 991KB!).

Cheers -

[kinetic]

Interesting thread Dana, guys,

I took a set two nights ago with my cooled DSI II and 12 " Newt.
I think this would be a great target for Rolf's imaging technique he used
to image the PP disk of Beta Pict.:thumbsup:

If I were to image an identical stellar type and magnitude star, or use
Rolf's technique to calculate the magnitude offset, maybe we could remove
the brighter component of the SWB1 parent star and reveal the ring?

I might have to remove the IR filter?

Inset courtesy of the Smith,Bally, Walawender paper, previous post.
I have picked up something, see arrow (Image #2), but I think it is either a processing
artifact or maybe just a part of the greater Eta C nebulosity that has
boosted due to the extreme curves applied :shrug:.
Either way, it is the wrong orientation.

Steve