Altair Study of Supernovae in Luminous Infrared Galaxies
PI:
Stuart Ryder
Co-I(s):
Seppo Mattila, Petri Vaisanen, Miguel Perez-Torres, Antxon Alberdi, Luis Colina, Andreas Efstathiou, Jari Kotilainen
Abstract
We propose a Laser Guide Star adaptive optics program in Semesters 08A-09B to detect and study supernovae (SNe) in the nuclear regions of a sample of northern Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs). Discovering the (still mostly unrevealed) population of highly-obscured core-collapse supernovae will be crucial for revising the optically-derived SN rates which almost certainly miss a significant fraction of all the SN events in the local and distant Universe. Our companion program in the south using NAOS-CONICA on the VLT has already demonstrated the necessity of adaptive optics in discovering such SNe, as well as the legacy value of such high-quality LIRG images.
Publications using this program's data
[data][ADS] Discovery of a Very Highly Extinguished Supernova in a Luminous Infrared Galaxy
[data][ADS] The core-collapse supernova rate in Arp 299 revisited
[data][ADS] The K-band luminosity functions of super star clusters in luminous infrared galaxies, their slopes and the effects of blending
[data][ADS] Near-infrared Adaptive Optics Imaging of Infrared Luminous Galaxies: The Brightest Cluster Magnitude-Star Formation Rate Relation
[data][ADS] The SUNBIRD survey: the K-band luminosity functions of young massive clusters in intensely star-forming galaxies