Circular No. 8006

Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION Mailstop 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions) BMARSDEN@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or DGREEN@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science) URL http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html Phone 617-495-7244/7440/7444 (for emergency use only)

SUPERNOVA 2002hi


	 W. Li, University of California at Berkeley (UCB), reports the
	 discovery by LOTOSS (cf. IAUC 7906) of an apparent supernova (mag
	 about 17.9) on unfiltered KAIT images taken on Oct. 21.5 and 31.5
	 UT.  SN 2002hi is located at R.A. = 7h19m54s.08, Decl. =
	 +17o58'18".2 (equinox 2000.0), which is within 1".0 of the nucleus
	 of a diffuse faint galaxy.  A KAIT image taken on Mar. 30.2 UT
	 showed nothing at this position (limiting mag about 19.0).

	  R. Chornock, S. Jha, and A. V. Filippenko, UCB; and B. Barris,
	  University of Hawaii, write that a spectrum (range 400-1000 nm),
	  obtained on Nov. 1.6 UT with the Keck II 10-m telescope (+ ESI),
	  shows that SN 2002hi is a type-IIn supernova, with strong H-alpha
	  emission having very broad (FWHM about 13000 km/s) and
	  intermediate-width (FWHM about 2000 km/s) components.  The very
	  broad component is also visible in the He I 587.6-nm emission line.
	  Intermediate-width emission similar to that of Wolf-Rayet stars is
	  present at a rest wavelength of about 465 nm, unusual even among
	  type-IIn supernovae.  Aside from the Wolf-Rayet lines, the spectrum
	  is similar to that of SN 1988Z at early times (Filippenko 1997,
	  ARAA 35, 309, and references therein).  Accordingly, the object
	  might become quite luminous at radio and x-ray wavelengths, because
	  of interaction of the ejecta with dense circumstellar gas.  The
	  host-galaxy redshift derived from narrow [N II] 658.3-nm emission
	  is 0.061. 

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Host galaxy info: z=0.061

SN type info: IIn

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