Stuart Ryder (Australian Gemini Office, AAO)

Supernovae as revealed by Gemini - Stuart Ryder Colloquium

AAO Lecture Theatre

Abstract

I will present some surprising new results about core-collapse supernovae enabled by the two Gemini telescopes. GMOS on Gemini South has confirmed the existence of a surviving massive binary companion to the Type IIb Supernova 2001ig (first hinted at by ATCA observations), which in turn sheds light on the nature of the progenitor star. We have also made the first-ever laser guide star adaptive optics discovery of a supernova, using ALTAIR on Gemini North. Supernova 2008cs in the Luminous Infrared Galaxy IRAS 17138-1017, subsequently confirmed with the VLA, has the highest measured extinction (18 magnitudes in the optical) of any supernova yet found, and hints at a population of previously-hidden supernovae which could challenge the current estimates for star formation rates.