BOSS jackpot?

[PeterM]

A very unique CBET 3607 has just been released by the IAU announcing both last years supernova as SN2012im (until now it did not have a cbet or IAU designation) and this current discovery as SN2013ek. It ties them both together and encourages follow up to find out just what has actually happened.
The CBET notes two possible interpretations - two nearby explosions or a non terminal explosion of the same object. To my knowledge there had never been two supernova occur this close and within 1 year almost to the day of each other. Colin Drescher BOSS team member put forward an interesting idea - could the one supernova trigger a chain reaction SN in a nearby star?

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by PeterM

A very unique CBET 3607 has just been released by the IAU announcing both last years supernova as SN2013im (until now it did not have a cbet or IAU designation) and this current discovery as 2013ek. It ties them both together to encourages follow up to find out just what has actually happened.
The CBET notes two possible interpretations - two nearby explosions or a non terminal explosion of the same object. To my knowledge there had never been two supernova occur this close and within 1 year almost to the day of each other. Colin Drescher BOSS team member put forward an interesting idea - could the one supernova trigger a chain reaction SN in a nearby star?

Peter,I had already suggested that as well
Cheers

[PeterM]

Yeah it's interesting Ron. This area of this galaxy will get a lot of scrutiny in years to come from amateurs and professionals, should there be a third supernova at that position, well that would really put the cat amongst the science. Exciting stuff.

[CarlJoseph (Carl)]

Wonderful work and very exciting to hear the development of this as it becomes better understood. Looking forward to learning what the spectra says about this second explosion.

[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

Originally Posted by Steffen

At that distance the 0.1 arc seconds resolution we're hoping for is a tad over 100ly. So even at that resolution we still won't be able to tell whether it's the same star or a neighbouring one?

Cheers
Steffen.

Good point, Steffen,

I should think that if they can obtain radio positions using a radio-frequency interferometer, where the resolution available is much better than in the optical regime, this might be able to distinguish whether there is a single repeated event or two different events.
(but don't quote me on it!)

In some of the star catalogs, there are some star positions that are accurate to 0.02 arcseconds.
I don't know how they manage this, as I have had an unjustified comtempt for astrometry;
however, as we can see from this case, it is quite obvious that we need to obtain object positions which are as accurate as they can be.

Incidentally, the angular resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope is about 0.04 arcseconds (or maybe slightly better??). When or if the Webb Telescope flies, we are still stuck with a best available optical resolution similar to that of the Hubble;
so Webb is not really such a good investment after all.

cheers,
Robert

[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

Actually, I was wrong in the previous post about the best angular resolution available being 0.04 arcsec.

With adaptive optics used on ground-based telescopes, which decreases the size of the airy disk by a large factor, I have a feeling that we can get positions of 0.01 arcseconds accuracy, and even better.
(for instance: I have just found some positions in the literature which are accurate to 10 milliarcseconds)

Perhaps someone who knows a lot more about this than me can enlighten us about this issue!

Here is an article in Scholarpedia about astrometry:
http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Astrometry

[Terry B]

Originally Posted by madbadgalaxyman

Actually, I was wrong in the previous post about the best angular resolution available being 0.04 arcsec.

With adaptive optics used on ground-based telescopes, which decreases the size of the airy disk by a large factor, I have a feeling that we can get positions of 0.01 arcseconds accuracy, and even better.
(for instance: I have just found some positions in the literature which are accurate to 10 milliarcseconds)

Perhaps someone who knows a lot more about this than me can enlighten us about this issue!

Here is an article in Scholarpedia about astrometry:
http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Astrometry

According to this item http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=5229
the researchers quote an accuracy of 52 x 38 milliarcsec for the HST to identify the progenitor star for the SN in M74.
Radio very long baseline interferometry is incredibly accurate but someone needs to have tried it for the SN last year and actually detected it at radio frequencies. This actually needs a reasonably bright radio source and the desire to research the position of the first SN which wasn't special until the second one occurred.

[mozzie (Peter)]

with fair seeing...s/n is visable in 14" video...looking to be as bright as core of galaxy,atmosphere is bouncing around to get a crisp look.

[CometGuy]

Hi Peter,

My belated congrats to Stu and the BOSS on this amazing discovery! Please post updates on the SN as news comes available.

Terry

[tonybarry (Tony)]

Hi Robert,

If the object of interest undergoes an occultation (by the lunar limb, or an asteroid, for example) the positional accuracy for that epoch can become really quite high. Unfortunately such occultations do not happen frequently for objects out of the ecliptic.

Regards,
Tony Barry

[rally]

Robert,

Gaia when launched later this year (I think its still on time ?) will be providing astrometric positional accuracies of sub 10 microarc seconds down to 20 and 22 magnitudes.
More than 100 spectra each on a Billion stars over 5 years

Rally