First Year Results from the Mt. Stromlo Abell Cluster Supernova Search

Session 39 - Supernovae.
Display session, Thursday, January 08
Exhibit Hall,

[39.07] First Year Results from the Mt. Stromlo Abell Cluster Supernova Search

D. J. Reiss (U. Washington), L. M. Germany, B. P. Schmidt (MSSSO), C. W. Stubbs (U. Washington)

The Mount Stromlo Abell Cluster Supernova Search has been in operation for 1-1/2 years and has been successful in discovering 20 supernovae (SNe) to date. Once a large enough sample is gathered, we expect to be able to estimate the SN luminosity function and rate (in clusters and in the field) and to compare the effect of host galaxy type on SN characteristics. We also plan to compare the SN Ia distances derived for several clusters to those measured by Lauer and Postman (1994) using brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) distances, and to discuss the implications for the measurement of the reflex motion of the Local Group (LG) with respect to Abell clusters using SNe Ia and/or BCG. We present preliminary results from the volume-limited sample of SNe obtained during the first year of the search, including light curves, spectra, distances, and interesting objects. In addition, we discuss preliminary estimates of the SN rate and luminosity function.

If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to msowww.anu.edu.au/~reiss/Abell_SNSearch. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the the Web space for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back button on your browser.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: reiss@astro.washington.edu

Program listing for Thursday