We present ground-based and Swift photometric and spectroscopic observations of the candidate tidal disruption event (TDE) ASASSN-14li, found at the centre of PGC 043234 (d ... 90 Mpc) by the All-Sky ...Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN). The source had a peak bolometric luminosity of ... and a total integrated energy of ... erg radiated over the ~6 months of observations presented. The UV/optical emission of the source is well fitted by a blackbody with roughly constant temperature of T ... 35,000 K, while the luminosity declines by roughly a factor of 16 over this time. The optical/UV luminosity decline is broadly consistent with an exponential decline, ..., with t0 ... 60 d. ASASSN-14li also exhibits soft X-ray emission comparable in luminosity to the optical and UV emission but declining at a slower rate, and the X-ray emission now dominates. Spectra of the source show broad Balmer and helium lines in emission as well as strong blue continuum emission at all epochs. We use the discoveries of ASASSN-14li and ASASSN-14ae to estimate the TDE rate implied by ASAS-SN, finding an average rate of ... per galaxy with a 90 per cent confidence interval of ... per galaxy. ASAS-SN found roughly 1 TDE for every 70 Type Ia supernovae in 2014, a rate that is much higher than that of other surveys. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
After the All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae discovered a significant brightening of the inner region of NGC 2617, we began a ~70 day photometric and spectroscopic monitoring campaign from the ...X-ray through near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths. We report that NGC 2617 went through a dramatic outburst, during which its X-ray flux increased by over an order of magnitude followed by an increase of its optical/ultraviolet (UV) continuum flux by almost an order of magnitude. NGC 2617, classified as a Seyfert 1.8 galaxy in 2003, is now a Seyfert 1 due to the appearance of broad optical emission lines and a continuum blue bump. Such "changing look active galactic nuclei (AGNs)" are rare and provide us with important insights about AGN physics. Based on the Hbeta line width and the radius-luminosity relation, we estimate the mass of central black hole (BH) to be (4 + or - 1) x 10 super(7) M sub(middot in circle). When we cross-correlate the light curves, we find that the disk emission lags the X-rays, with the lag becoming longer as we move from the UV (2-3 days) to the NIR (6-9 days). Also, the NIR is more heavily temporally smoothed than the UV. This can largely be explained by a simple model of a thermally emitting thin disk around a BH of the estimated mass that is illuminated by the observed, variable X-ray fluxes.
ABSTRACT On 2014 December 9.61, the All-sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN or "Assassin") discovered ASASSN-14lp just ∼2 days after first light using a global array of 14 cm diameter ...telescopes. ASASSN-14lp went on to become a bright supernova (V = 11.94 mag), second only to SN 2014J for the year. We present prediscovery photometry (with a detection less than a day after first light) and ultraviolet through near-infrared photometric and spectroscopic data covering the rise and fall of ASASSN-14lp for more than 100 days. We find that ASASSN-14lp had a broad light curve ( ), a B-band maximum at 2457015.82 0.03, a rise time of days, and moderate host-galaxy extinction ( ). Using ASASSN-14lp, we derive a distance modulus for NGC 4666 of , corresponding to a distance of 14.7 1.5 Mpc. However, adding ASASSN-14lp to the calibrating sample of Type Ia supernovae still requires an independent distance to the host galaxy. Finally, using our early-time photometric and spectroscopic observations, we rule out red giant secondaries and, assuming a favorable viewing angle and explosion time, any nondegenerate companion larger than 0.34 .
The All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) is a long-term project to monitor bright variable stars over the whole sky. It has discovered 50 099 variables brighter than V < 14 mag south of declination +28°, ...and among them 11 076 eclipsing binaries. We present a preliminary analysis of 5384 contact, 2949 semi-detached, and 2743 detached systems. The statistics of the distribution provides a qualitative confirmation of decades old idea of Flannery and Lucy that the W UMa-type binaries evolve through a series of relaxation oscillations: the ASAS finds comparable number of contact and semi-detached systems. The most surprising result is a very small number of detached eclipsing binaries with periods P < 1 d, the systems believed to be the progenitors of the W UMa stars. As many (perhaps all) contact binaries have companions, there is a possibility that some were formed in a Kozai cycle, as suggested by Eggleton and his associates.
ASASSN-14ae: a tidal disruption event at 200 Mpc Holoien, T. W.-S; Prieto, J. L; Bersier, D ...
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
12/2014, Letnik:
445, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
ASASSN-14ae is a candidate tidal disruption event (TDE) found at the centre of SDSS J110840.11+340552.2 (d ≃ 200 Mpc) by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN). We present ground-based ...and Swift follow-up photometric and spectroscopic observations of the source, finding that the transient had a peak luminosity of L ≃ 8 × 1043 erg s−1 and a total integrated energy of E ≃ 1.7 × 1050 erg radiated over the ∼5 months of observations presented. The blackbody temperature of the transient remains roughly constant at T ∼ 20 000 K while the luminosity declines by nearly 1.5 orders of magnitude during this time, a drop that is most consistent with an exponential, L ∝ e-t/t
0
with t
0 ≃ 39 d. The source has broad Balmer lines in emission at all epochs as well as a broad He ii feature emerging in later epochs. We compare the colour and spectral evolution to both supernovae and normal AGN to show that ASASSN-14ae does not resemble either type of object and conclude that a TDE is the most likely explanation for our observations. At z = 0.0436, ASASSN-14ae is the lowest-redshift TDE candidate discovered at optical/UV wavelengths to date, and we estimate that ASAS-SN may discover 0.1–3 of these events every year in the future.
We present All-Sky Automated Survey data starting 25 days before the discovery of the recent type IIn SN 2010jl, and we compare its light curve to other luminous IIn supernovae (SNe), showing that it ...is a luminous (MI --20.5) event. Its host galaxy, UGC 5189, has a low gas-phase oxygen abundance (12 + log(O/H) = 8.2 ? 0.1), which reinforces the emerging trend that overluminous core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) are found in the low-metallicity tail of the galaxy distribution, similar to the known trend for the hosts of long GRBs. We compile oxygen abundances from the literature and from our own observations of UGC 5189, and we present an unpublished spectrum of the luminous type Ic SN 2010gx that we use to estimate its host metallicity. We discuss these in the context of host metallicity trends for different classes of core-collapse objects. The earliest generations of stars are known to be enhanced in O/Fe relative to the solar mixture; it is therefore likely that the stellar progenitors of these overluminous SNe are even more iron-poor than they are oxygen-poor. A number of mechanisms and massive star progenitor systems have been proposed to explain the most luminous CCSNe. Any successful theory that tries to explain these very luminous events will need to include the emerging trend that points toward low metallicity for the massive progenitor stars. This trend for very luminous SNe to strongly prefer low-metallicity galaxies should be taken into account when considering various aspects of the evolution of the metal-poor early universe, such as enrichment and reionization.
The All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) monitors bright stars (8 < V < 14 mag) south of declination +28°. The ASAS Catalogue of Variable Stars (ACVS) presently contains 50 099 objects; among them are ...2212 objects classified as RR Lyrae pulsating variables. We use ASAS photometric V-band data to search for multiperiodicity in those stars. We find that 73 of 1435 RRab stars and 49 of 756 RRc stars exhibit the Blazhko effect. We observe a deficiency of RRab Blazhko variables with main pulsation periods greater than 0.65 d. The Blazhko periods of RRc stars exhibit a strongly bimodal distribution. During our study we discovered the Blazhko effect with multiple periods in object ASAS 050747−3351.9 = SU Col. Blazhko periods of 89.3 and 65.8 d and a candidate of 29.5 d were identified with periodogram peaks near the first three harmonics of the main pulsation. These observations may inspire new models of the Blazhko effect, which has eluded a consistent theory since its discovery about one hundred years ago. Long-term light curve changes were found in 29 stars. We also found 19 Galactic double mode pulsators (RRd), of which four are new discoveries, raising the number of ASAS discoveries of such objects to 16, out of 27 known in the field of our Galaxy.
UNMASKING THE SUPERNOVA IMPOSTORS KOCHANEK, C. S; SZCZYGIEL, D. M; STANEK, K. Z
The Astrophysical journal,
10/2012, Letnik:
758, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The canonical picture of a supernova impostor is a short -11 < or ~ MV < or ~ -14 optical transient from a massive star during which the star ejects a dense shell of material. Dust formed in the ...ejecta then obscures the star. In this picture, the geometric expansion of the shell leads to clear predictions for the evolution of the optical depths and hence the evolution of the optical through mid-IR emissions. The durations and energetics of these transients cannot be properly characterized without near/mid-IR observations, and the fragmentary nature of the available data leads to considerable uncertainties in our understanding of the individual sources. Continued monitoring of the sources at both optical and near/mid-IR wavelengths should resolve these ambiguities.
We show that the candidate progenitor of the core-collapse SN 2011dh in M 51 (8 Mpc away) was fading by 0.039 + or - 0.006 mag yr super(-1) during the 3 years prior to the supernova, and that this ...level of variability is moderately unusual for other similar stars in M 51. While there are uncertainties about whether the true progenitor was a blue companion to this candidate, the result illustrates that there are no technical challenges to obtaining fairly high precision light curves of supernova-progenitor systems using ground-based observations of nearby (<10 Mpc) galaxies with wide-field cameras on 8 m class telescopes. While other sources of variability may dominate, it is even possible to reach into the range of evolution rates required by the quasi-static evolution of the stellar envelope. For M 81, where we have many more epochs and a slightly longer time baseline, our formal 3sigma sensitivity to slow changes is presently 3 mmag yr super(-1) for an M sub(V) Asymptotically = to -8 mag star. In short, there is no observational barrier to determining whether the variability properties of stars in their last phases of evolution (post-carbon ignition) are different from earlier phases.
We observed supernova (SN) 2002bu in the near-IR with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the mid-IR with the Spitzer Space Telescope, and in X-rays with Swift 10 years after the explosion. If the ...faint L sub(H) ~ 10 super(2) Lmiddot in circle HST near-IR source at the transient position is the near-IR counterpart of SN 2002bu, then the source has dramatically faded between 2004 and 2012, from L Asymptotically = to 10 super(6.0) Lmiddot in circle to L Asymptotically = to 10 super(4.5) Lmiddot in circle. It is still heavily obscured, tau sub(v) Asymptotically = to 5 in graphitic dust models, with almost all the energy radiated in the mid-IR. The radius of the dust emission is increasing as R is proportional to super(0.7+ or -0.4) and the optical depth is dropping as tau sub(v) is proportional to t super(-1.3+ or -0.4). The evolution expected for an expanding shell of material, tau sub(v) is proportional to t super(-2), is ruled out at approximately 2sigma, while the tau sub(v) is proportional to t super(-0.8) to t super(-1) optical depth scaling for a shock passing through a pre-existing wind is consistent with the data. If the near-IR source is a chance superposition, the present-day source can be moderately more luminous, significantly more obscured and evolving more slowly. While we failed to detect X-ray emission, the X-ray flux limits are consistent with the present-day emissions being powered by an expanding shock wave. SN 2002bu is clearly a member of the SN 2008S class of transients, but continued monitoring of the evolution of the spectral energy distribution is needed to conclusively determine the nature of the transient.
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