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E. A. Knox (Humboldt State University), N. B. Suntzeff (Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory), J. L. Prieto (The Ohio State University)
The use of type Ia supernovae (SNeIa) as distance indicators is made more accurate by the continued acquisition of good photometry on SNeIa events. As the set of observed events becomes more accurate by including precise CCD photometry, use of Phillip's Dm15 parameter gives better defined magnitude errors and template fits even with incomplete data, allowing us to estimate the peak magnitude, epoch of peak brightness, and host galaxy reddening. With these considerations it is possible to use the peak brightness of SNeIa to measure luminosity distances despite the fact that the SNe are imperfect standard candles.
For this study, optical UBVRI photometry is carried out using IRAF and Stetson's DAOPHOT for the nearby supernova SN2003gs in NGC0936. The supernova was caught just at maximum light and the light curve is well-fit through day 80 since maximum light. This supernova was a rare sublumious event with Dm15=1.85m. The absolute magnitude fits well on the relationship of absolute magnitude versus Dm15 of Phillips et al. .(1999).
Thanks to the National Science Foundation and to Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory for their support of this study.
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: eak2@humboldt.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.