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J.S. Ulvestad (NRAO), S.G. Neff (NASA's GSFC), S.H. Teng (U.Md.)
The merger galaxy Arp 299 (IC 694 + NGC 3690), at a distance of 41 Mpc, underwent a substantial starburst in the last 10 million years, and is known to contain a significant supernova factory in one of its two primary nuclei. We now have imaged the milliarcsecond-scale radio emission from Arp 299 at multiple epochs, using the VLBA and the Green Bank Telescope at 2.3 and 8.4 GHz. By stacking images from three epochs at intervals of six months, we detect at least 15 young supernovae in the eastern nucleus of Arp 299, and another four in the western nucleus. Over the course of two years, from early 2003 through early 2005, no new radio supernovae have appeared above our detection threshold of 1019.5 W/Hz, and no radio sources have faded significantly. The strongest radio sources have powers 100 or more times higher than Cas A, and the luminosity function of young supernovae or supernova remnants is 5--10 times higher than in M82, consistent with a similar ratio in their supernova rates.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #2
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.