The 2008 Luminous Transient in the Nearby Spiral NGC 300

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Scientific paper

A new 14th magnitude star was discovered by Monard in the Sculptor Group spiral galaxy NGC 300 in April 2008. At the galaxy's distance of 2.2 Mpc, the visual absolute magnitude at maximum was about -12, intermediate in brightness between classical novae and Type II core-collapse supernovae. We have imaged the transient with HST and the WFPC2 camera in June and September 2008, allowing us to locate the outburst site precisely in archival pre-outburst HST ACS images. The site lies in an area of active star formation, but there is no optical progenitor star to a limit of 28 mag. However, an archival Spitzer image shows that there was a luminous infrared star at the site in late 2007, detected at 3.6 through 24 microns. Photometric monitoring with the SMARTS 1.3m telescope at CTIO shows a smoothly declining optical light curve, with a suggestion of a flattening in the latest observations. Spectroscopic monitoring with the SMARTS 1.5m shows an underlying continuum resembling an F-type supergiant, with strong emission lines of the Balmer series, Ca II, and [Ca II] superposed. The emission lines have shown a double structure, suggesting a bipolar outflow from the central object. We interpret the event as an outburst on a heavily dust-obscured OH/IR source. SN 2008S may be another member of this class.

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