Program: GN-2013A-Q-4

The progenitors of type Ia supernovae remain a mystery despite their importance as fundamental distance indicators. We still do not know if type Ia explosions come from single degenerate binary stars or binaries made of two white dwarfs. Recent models show that the secondary star in a single degenerate binary will cause bright shock emission in the first hours or days after the explosion while double degenerate explosions are expected to brighten monotonically. We have been granted time on Kepler to monitor about 100 bright galaxies at z < 0.05 over the course of the year in the Kepler field in order to obtain the early light curve of a couple of supernovae - not only Ia but also core collapse supernova of which we can constrain the physics of the early explosion. With our data set, no other experiment - past, present, or presently planned - can match the time resolution and continuous monitoring that we will achieve. We are proposing for two Target of Opportunity observations of our candidate SN for spectral classification and late time color evolution montioring to get a detailed view of the SN and maximize our understanding of the progenitors that cause them.