[vsnet-alert 7233] SN 2002bl; fifth 'hypernova'

[Hitoshi YAMAOKA <yamaoka@rc.kyushu-u.ac.jp>]

Dear SN watchers,

  M. Armstrong discovered a SN, which was revealed to be a hypernova! 
It is fifth example of hypernova, after SNe 1997ef, 1998bw, 1998ey and
recent 2002ap, but somewhat more distant.

  According to IAUC 7845, SN 2002bl was discovered on Mar. 2.901 UT at
mag 17.0 (unfiltered CCD), and seems to remain at the constant
brightness up to Mar. 7.059 UT.  The position is R.A. = 10h12m17s.28,
Decl. = +27o51'52".4 (2000.0), which is about 5" west and 9" north of
the nucleus of the highly tilted barred-spiral (SBb:) galaxy UGC 5499.
It is superimposed on the disk region.

  The spectrum of this object was obtained with Keck-I telescope on
Mar. 7 UT.  It shows a quite resemblance with 'hypernovae' SNe 1997ef,
1998bw, and 2002ap about 2 weeks after the explosion.  Some feature
resembles that of SN 1997ef, which was not so luminous, and the other
feature resembles that of luminous SN 1998bw.  

  The recession velocity of UGC 5499 is 4753 km/s (NED), which shows
good coinsidence with that of SN 1998ey (4839 km/s).  The maximum of
this hypernova was mag about 16.8, which is also in good agreement of
the discovery mag of the new object.  It is quite important to
follow-up this hypernova in order to study such energetic explosions.

Sincerely Yours,
Hitoshi Yamaoka, Kyushu Univ., Japan
yamaoka@rc.kyushu-u.ac.jp

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