Publications
182 results found
Mattila S, Greimel R, Meikle W, et al., 2002, Searching for Obscured Supernovae in Nearby Starburst Galaxies, The Newsletter of the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING Newsl.), issue no. 6.
We are currently carrying out a Ks band survey for core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) in the nuclear (central kpc) regions of nearby starburst galaxies with the INGRID near-IR camera at the WHT. In this article we concentrate on describing mainly the observations and the real time processing of the SN search data, which makes use of the ING's integrated data flow system.
Farrah D, Meikle WPS, Clements D, et al., 2002, The host galaxies of Type Ia supernovae at <i>z</i>=0.6, MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Vol: 336, Pages: L17-L21, ISSN: 0035-8711
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- Citations: 15
Patat F, Meikle W, Aceituno J, 2002, Supernova 2002el in NGC 6986, IAU Circular, 7954
F. Patat, European Southern Observatory; and P. Meikle, Imperial College, London, on behalf of the European Research and Training Network on the Physics of Type-Ia Supernovae, report that spectrograms (ranges 390-500 and 600-710 nm; resolution 0.17 nm) of SN 2002el were obtained at Calar Alto Observatory by J. Aceituno on Aug. 14.97 UT at the 3.5-m telescope (+ TWIN double-channel spectrograph). A full reduction of the two 1800-s spectra shows the object to be a type-Ia supernova. A comparison with the spectra of SN 1994D (Patat et al. 1996, MNRAS 278, 111) indicates that SN 2002el was observed 8-10 days before maximum light. The recession velocity of the parent galaxy, deduced from the match to the spectra of SN 1994D, is 9000 +/- 1000 km/s.
Smartt S, Patat F, Meikle W, et al., 2002, Supernova 2002er in UGC 10743, IAU Circular, 7961
S. J. Smartt, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge; F. Patat, European Southern Observatory; and P. Meikle, Imperial College, London, on behalf of the European Research and Training Network on the Physics of Type-Ia Supernovae, report that a 1800-s spectrum (range 360-720 nm; resolution 0.46 nm) of SN 2002er (cf. IAUC 7959), obtained at the Isaac Newton Telescope (+ IDS spectrograph) on La Palma by S. Araujo on Aug. 26.93 UT, shows it to be a type-Ia supernova. A comparison with the spectra of SN 1994D (Patat et al. 1996, MNRAS 278, 111), and in particular the relative strengths of the features of Fe II/III and Si II, suggests an early epoch of roughly 10 days prior to peak brightness. The spectrum is significantly redder than that of SN 1994D, indicating host-galaxy extinction. The interstellar Na I D lines from the host galaxy at +2508 km/s are seen as an unresolved blend in the spectrum and have equivalent widths of 0.11 +/- 0.01 nm for the Milky Way and 0.12 +/- 0.01 nm for UGC 10743. The Galactic extinction of Schlegel et al. (1998, Ap.J. 500, 525) suggests a reddening of E(B-V) = 0.16 towards UGC 10743. Since the Na I lines of the host-galaxy absoprtion are similar to the Milky Way absorption, the likely total reddening is of the order E(B-V) about 0.3.
Smartt SJ, Vreeswijk PM, Ramirez-Ruiz E, et al., 2002, On the progenitor of the Type Ic supernova 2002ap, ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, Vol: 572, Pages: L147-L151, ISSN: 0004-637X
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- Citations: 41
Meikle W, Mack K, Marcha M, 2002, Supernova 2002cr in NGC 5468, IAU Circular, 7891
P. Meikle, Imperial College, London, reports that K.-H. Mack, and M. Marcha obtained a spectrum (range 382-722 nm, resolution 0.7 nm) of SN 2002cr on May 4.02 UT with the Isaac Newton Telescope at La Palma. Comparison of the spectrum with those of SNe 1994D and 1998bu indicates that SN 2002cr is a typical type-Ia event, about 5 days before maximum light. The maximum expansion velocity measured from the blue wing of the Si II absorption is 19100 km/s (after correcting for the redshift of the host galaxy). A second spectrum obtained on May 5.06 by the same observers shows relatively little change in the spectral features.
Meikle W, Mattila S, Glasse A, et al., 2002, Supernova 2002cv in NGC 3190, IAU Circular, 7911
P. Meikle and S. Mattila, Imperial College, London, report that infrared magnitudes of SN 2002cv obtained by A. Glasse at the U.K. Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) on May 17.3 UT (H = 14.3, K = 13.9) indicate a brightening since May 13.8 (cf. IAUC 7901). Infrared spectra (range 0.83-1.35 and 1.98-2.5 microns) were obtained by J. Buckle at the UKIRT on May 22.3 and 23.3. A spectrum covering bands I and J (and of fairly low S/N) shows a continuum declining by about 30 percent from the short- to long-wavelength limits. No strong features are present. The K-band spectrum (with good S/N) shows a number of broad, prominent emission/absorption features superimposed on a continuum that declines toward longer wavelengths. The presence of these features means that the infrared spectrum is not that of a type-II supernova. An infrared spectrum (range 0.83-2.5 microns) of the type-Ia SN 2002bo (IAUC 7846), also in NGC 3190, was obtained at the UKIRT by A. Adamson on Apr. 3.3, about 10 days after maximum light (B-band); by reddening the SN 2002bo infrared spectrum relative to that of SN 2002cv, by an absolute V-band extinction of A(V) about 6 (using the extinction law of Cardelli et al. 1989, Ap.J. 345, 245), the two infrared spectra become quite similar in appearance, with SN 2002cv being about 0.4 mag brighter than the dereddened SN 2002bo. Meikle and Mattila add: "We conclude that the absolute (d = 22 Mpc) dereddened magnitudes of SN 2002cv (cf. Meikle 2000, MNRAS 314, 782) and the appearance of its infrared spectra indicate a type-Ia event with maximum light (B-band) around May 23. Given the earlier, higher-temperature epoch of the SN 2002cv infrared spectra, compared with SN 2002bo, it is likely that the value A(V) toward SN 2002cv actually exceeds 6, making this probably the highest ever recorded for an identified type-Ia supernova. Unlike SN 2002bo, the SN 2002cv I-band spectrum does not show strong Ca II triplet emission/absorption. However, weak Ca II has been observed in
Fassia A, Meikle WPS, Spyromilio J, 2002, Spectroscopy of SN 1987A at 0.9-2.4 μm:: days 1348-3158, MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Vol: 332, Pages: 296-310, ISSN: 0035-8711
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- Citations: 11
Mattila S, Meikle W, Walton N, et al., 2002, Possible Supernova in NGC 7714, IAU Circular, 7865
S. Mattila and P. Meikle, Imperial College, London; N. Walton, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge; R. Greimel, Isaac Newton Group, La Palma; S. Ryder, Anglo-Australian Observatory; and C. Alard, DASGAL and Institut d'Astrophysique, Paris, report the discovery (7-sigma detection) of a possible supernova (mag 17.3) in an archival U.K. Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) K-band image obtained with IRCAM3 on 1998 Sept. 5.4 UT; images taken 3 min apart showed no detectable movement (seeing 0".8). The new object was located in the nuclear region of the starburst galaxy NGC 7714 at R.A. = 23h36m14s.0, Decl. = +2o09'24" (equinox 2000.0), which is 2" west and 5" north of (or 1 kpc from) the galaxy nucleus. The new object was apparent via image-subtraction techniques when compared with later K_s-band images obtained on 2001 Sept. 1.0 at the William Herschel Telescope (+ INGRID) and on 2000 Oct. 21 by A. Lancon and collaborators at the New Technology Telescope (+ SOFI), when no point source was visible at the location. Subtraction techniques reveal no object (limiting mag 18.5) at this location on a UKIRT H-band image obtained on 1998 Sept. 5 (NTT reference image). If this was a normal core-collapse supernova at any epoch, or a slow decliner (Mattila and Meikle 2001, MNRAS 324, 325) at an early epoch, an estimate of the H-K color limit implies an A_V towards the supernova of at least 6 mag. Alternatively, such a red H-K color could be produced by a slow-decliner type (e.g., SN 1998S) at a late phase with a much lower A_V. The search of archives for other detections of this possible supernova is encouraged.
Smartt S, Meikle WPS, Benn C, 2002, Supernova 2002ap in M74, IAU Circular, 7822
S. Smartt, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge; and P. Meikle, Imperial College, London, write: "A spectrum (range 569-610 nm; resolution 0.08 nm) of SN 2002ap, obtained with the William Herschel Telescope at La Palma on Feb. 2.9 UT by C. Benn, shows absorption features of the interstellar-medium lines Na I (588.995 and 589.592 nm) shifted by +631 km/s. This matches the redshift of M74 and confirms that SN 2002ap is indeed associated with that host galaxy. We see no higher redshifted components in this spectrum (continuum signal-to-noise = 130), which suggests that SN 2002ap is not behind M74 in an unassociated galaxy."
Mattila S, Meikle W, Chambers K, 2002, Supernova 2002ap in M74, IAU Circular, 7820
S. Mattila and P. Meikle, Imperial College, London, report that SN 2002ap continues to brighten in the infrared, as indicated by the following magnitudes from observations obtained by K. Chambers (Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii) at the U.K. Infrared Telescope (+ infrared imager UFTI): Feb. 3.2 UT, I = 12.62, Z = 12.44, J = 12.39, H = 12.23, K = 12.20; 4.2, 12.51, 12.30, 12.27, 12.08, 11.94.
Chugai NN, Blinnikov SI, Fassia A, et al., 2002, The origin of the high-velocity circumstellar gas around SN1998S, MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Vol: 330, Pages: 473-480, ISSN: 0035-8711
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- Citations: 24
Meikle P, Lucy L, Smartt S, et al., 2002, Supernova 2002ap in M74, International Astronomical Union Circular, Pages: 1-1, ISSN: 0081-0304
Meikle W, Lucy L, Smartt S, et al., 2002, Supernova 2002ap in M74, IAU Circular, 7881
P. Meikle and L. Lucy, Imperial College, London; S. Smartt, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge; B. Leibundgut, European Southern Observatory; and P. Lundqvist, Stockholm Observatory, report that R. Ostensen obtained a spectrum (range 432.6-789.9 nm) of SN 2002ap at the William Herschel Telescope on Jan. 30.9 UT: "The spectrum shows a blue continuum with broad absorption features at about 448.0, 557.5, and 719.5 nm. The red absorption is particularly broad, spanning approximately 660-760 nm. The absorption features bear some resemblance to those seen in SN 1998bw at 7 days (Stathakis et al. 2000, MNRAS 314, 807), though shifted further to the blue in SN 2002ap by 15 000-20 000 km/s. The 448.0-nm absorption appears to be deeper and may include a more narrow component than in SN 1998bw. The emission peak at 530 nm for SN 1998bw is absent in the spectrum of SN 2002ap. We suggest that SN 2002ap may be a younger and/or more energetic version of SN 1998bw."
Meikle P, 2002, Types of type la supernovae at low and high redshift, San Francisco, Conference on a new era in cosmology, University of Durham, Durham, England, 11 - 15 September 2001, Publisher: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Pages: 293-300
Mattila S, Meikle WPS, 2001, Erratum: Supernovae in the nuclear regions of starburst galaxies
Smartt SJ, Kilkenny D, Meikle W, 2001, Supernova 2001du in NGC 1365, IAU Circular, 7704
S. J. Smartt, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge; D. Kilkenny, South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO); and P. Meikle, Imperial College, London, report that a spectrum taken at the SAAO 1.9-m telescope (+ Cassegrain Spectrograph) on Sept. 2.05 UT indicates that SN 2001du (IAUC 7690, 7692) is a type-II supernova: "The spectrum (340-530 nm, resolution 0.3 nm) has a very blue continuum, indicating an early epoch and eruption likely to have been just before Aug. 24 (cf. IAUC 7690). There is a strong H-beta P-Cyg profile, and the H-gamma, H-delta, and H-epsilon lines are seen in absorption. The expansion velocity determined from the trough of the H-beta absorption is about 6000 km/s (assuming the NED recession velocity for NGC 1365 of 1636 km/s). This galaxy was well studied by the Hubble Space Telescope during the Cepheid- distance-scale Key Project, and has a distance of 18.3 +/- 3.3 Mpc (distance modulus 31.31 +/- 0.38); the site of SN 2001du falls on three pre-explosion images taken with WFPC2, which could possibly allow a progenitor to be identified. At the very least, limits will be set on the progenitor mass (as in Smartt et al. 2001, Ap.J. 556, L29). Hence, observations of this event at optical, radio, infrared, and x-ray wavelengths are strongly encouraged."
Meikle W, Pollacco D, Armstrong M, 2001, Supernova 2001eg in UGC 3885, IAU Circular, 7712
P. Meikle, Astrophysics Group, Imperial College of Science, London, reports that two 600-s I-band images (limiting mag 21.1) obtained by D. Pollacco with the 1.0-m Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope at La Palma on Sept. 2.2 UT show SN 2001eg as a point source at mag 19.2 +/- 0.3 and located 6".8 west and 16".0 south of the galaxy nucleus; Armstrong has measured the position from these images and provides the following position end figures: 05s.99, 38".3. Armstrong adds that an image that he obtained on Sept. 5.14 shows the new object at mag 18.7.
Fassia A, Meikle WPS, Chugai N, et al., 2001, Optical and infrared spectroscopy of the type IInSN1998S: days 3-127, MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Vol: 325, Pages: 907-930, ISSN: 0035-8711
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- Citations: 148
Meikle W, Fassia A, 2001, Supernova 2001dc in NGC 5777, IAU Circular, 7662
"A spectrum obtained on July 10.97 at the Isaac Newton Telescope shows a strong but quite narrow P-Cyg profile in H-alpha. Together with the lack of significant decline in optical brightness between June 22 and July 4, we conclude that this is a type-IIp supernova, still in its plateau phase during this period. Other lines identified include Fe II (501.8 and 516.9 nm), Na I D, and the Ca II infrared triplet. A blueshifted absorption feature due to H-beta may also be present, but it is close to the blue limit of the spectrum (482 nm). The trough of the H-alpha profile is blueshifted by about 2400 km/s with respect to the emission peak. The corresponding figure for Na I D is 2300 km/s. The supernova appears to be an unusually low-energy event. Assuming negligible extinction, the V-band magnitude corresponds to M_V = -12.6 (adopting 32.4 as the distance modulus for NGC 5777), compared with more typical values (M_V = -15 to -16) for a type-IIp event during its plateau phase (Patat et al. 1994, A.Ap. 282, 731). Moreover, the velocity seen in H-alpha is only about half of that normally observed during this era. Further photometric and spectroscopic observations are strongly encouraged. Of particular interest is the size of the decline immediately following the end of the plateau phase."
Mattila S, Meikle WPS, 2001, Supernovae in the nuclear regions of starburst galaxies, MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Vol: 324, Pages: 325-342, ISSN: 0035-8711
he feasibility of using near-infrared observations to discover supernovae in the nuclear and circumnuclear regions of nearby starburst galaxies is investigated. We provide updated estimates of the intrinsic core-collapse supernova rates in these regions. We discuss the problem of extinction, and present new estimates of the extinction towards 33 supernova remnants in the starburst galaxy M 82. This is done using Hi and H2 column density measurements. We estimate the molecular to atomic hydrogen mass ratio to be 7.4+/-1.0 in M 82. We have assembled near-infrared photometric data for a total of 13 core-collapse supernovae, some unpublished hitherto. This constitutes the largest database of infrared light curves for such events. We show that the infrared light curves fall into two classes, `ordinary' and `slowly declining'. Template JHKL light curves are derived for both classes. For ordinary core-collapse supernovae, the average peak JHKL absolute magnitudes are -18.4, -18.6, -18.6 and -19.0 respectively. The slowly declining core-collapse supernovae are found to be significantly more luminous than the ordinary events, even at early times, having average peak JHKL absolute magnitudes of -19.9, -20.0, -20.0 and -20.4 respectively. We investigate the efficiency of a computerized image subtraction method in supernova detection. We then carry out a Monte Carlo simulation of a supernova search using K-band images of NGC 5962. The effects of extinction and observing strategy are discussed. We conclude that a modest observational programme will be able to discover a number of nuclear supernovae.
Mattila S, Meikle WPS, 2001, Supernovae in the nuclear regions of starburst galaxies, San Francisco, Conference on the central Kiloparsec of starbursts and AGN, Los Cancajos, Spain, 7 - 11 May 2001, Publisher: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Pages: 569-572
Hernandez M, Meikle WPS, Aparicio A, et al., 2000, An early-time infrared and optical study of the Type Ia Supernova 1998bu in M96, MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Vol: 319, Pages: 223-234, ISSN: 0035-8711
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- Citations: 62
Fassia A, Meikle WPS, Vacca WD, et al., 2000, Optical and infrared photometry of the Type IInSN1998S:: days 11-146, MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Vol: 318, Pages: 1093-1104, ISSN: 0035-8711
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- Citations: 125
Meikle WPS, 2000, The absolute infrared magnitudes of type Ia supernovae, MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Vol: 314, Pages: 782-792, ISSN: 0035-8711
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- Citations: 83
Meikle W, Hernandez M, 2000, Infrared and optical study of the type Ia SN 1998bu in M96., Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana, Vol. 71, p. 299-306 (2000)
The type Ia SN 1998bu was discovered in the galaxy M96 on 9 May 1998. It is one of the closest type Ia events of modern times and good temporal coverage has been achieved. Moreover its distance is well-determined. The authors describe some of the first-season photometric and spectroscopic observations. While SN 1998bu is unusually highly reddened, they can still deduce that it was a typical type Ia event. Preliminary analysis suggests that for an H0 of about 60 km s-1Mpc-1, its (de-reddened) peak luminosity, light curve shape and spectroscopic behaviour confirms the relationships found between these parameters in other classic type Ia supernovae.
Fassia A, Meikle WPS, Vacca WD, et al., 2000, Optical and Infrared photometry of the type IIn SN 1998S, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol: 318, Pages: 1093-1104
Fassia A, Meikle WPS, 1999, <SUP>56</SUP>Ni dredge-up in Supernova 1987A, MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Vol: 302, Pages: 314-320, ISSN: 0035-8711
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- Citations: 12
Fassia A, Meikle WPS, Geballe TR, et al., 1998, <SUP>56</SUP>Ni dredge-up in the type IIp supernova 1995V, MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Vol: 299, Pages: 150-164, ISSN: 0035-8711
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- Citations: 43
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