University of Iowa

Very-Late-Type Spiral and Irregular Galaxy
Supernova Search


 
 
SN Project Main Page
Current Results
Rate Calculation
Other Supernova Searches
What are Supernovae?
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy

For More Information Contact
          Chris Anson

Supernova Images
          SN1999gq
          SN2000C
          SN2000bg
          SN2002bu
          coming soon

 The main purpose of this project is to discover new supernovae in very-late-type (Sdm-Sm) and irregular (Irr) galaxies.  Discovering new supernovae soon after the explosion takes place is important because supernovae, being rare events,  need to be studied in great detail.  Once the processes at work in supernovae are understood we may have a better understanding of how they may be used in the determination of the ultimate fate of the universe.  We may then be confident that we can determine whether or not there is a non-zero cosmological constant, the presence of which would indicate that there is some mysterious force at work in the universe that has not been observed until now.  This force would most likely take the form of a vacuum energy density.  So that empty vacuum would excert a force on matter making its initial expansion from the big bang accelerate.

The second purpose of this project is to determine accurate rates of occurance of supernovae of different types in these types of galaxies as this measurement has never been done accurately to date.  This information can have implications for galactic evolution because supernovae produce essentially all of the heavy elements that are released into the interstellar media of galaxies. 

In light of these potential benefits from a project of this sort in August of 1999 we began the VLTSS (very-late-type supernova search).  The project began slowly due to poor weather at the site of our telescope (Iowa Robotic Observatory) located at Winer Observatory in Southeast Arizona.  Now that the project is more established and some significant observing time on these types of galaxies has been obtained we may begin interpreting results and compare the results with the rates determined for early-type (S0a-Sb) and late-type spirals (Sbc-Sd).
 
                                              
SN1999gq                                                  SN2000C                                                   SN2000bg
NGC 4523                                                 NGC 2415                                                  NGC 6240
Type II                                                     Type Ic                                                      Type  IIn
12/23/99 (this image from 11/21/99)      01/08/2000                                                 04/01/2000
Here is a page that has information on all new supernovae:  cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/RecentSupernovae.html

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