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Session 90 - Supernovae, Supernovae Remnants and Planetary Nebulae.
Oral session, Wednesday, January 17
Salon del Rey Central, Hilton
We present the first results of a comprehensive study of the ages of Type Ia and Type II supernovae (SNe Ia and II) using positional age indicators. This presentation will focus on a measurement of the correlation of SN positions with spiral arms. We traced the spiral arms of 89 SN host galaxies using a homogeneous set of CCD images in V and compensating for the variation in resolution caused by the galaxies' different distances and seeing conditions. Our results indicate that the distributions of the different classes of SNe with respect to spiral arms are less distinct than previously believed, with less than a 60% probability that the spiral arm scale lengths of the populations of SNe Ia and SNe II are statistically different. Both classes of SNe are much more tightly correlated with arms than a sample of objects placed randomly in an exponential disk. This suggests that the bulk population of SNe Ia may be close in age to SNe II, making them younger than expected.
