Motivation
The landscape of cosmic explosions in the year 2004 is shown below. Note the large white-space between the brightest novae and faintest supernovae, especially on short timescales.
Transients in the Local Universe
Surveys
To systematically unveil transients in the luminosity gap between novae and supernovae, I undertook three surveys:
- P60-FasTING: Palomar 60inch --- Fast Transients in Nearest Galaxies Read Paper
- CFHT-COVET: Canada France Hawaii Telescope --- Coma and Virgo Exploration for Transients
- PTF-TILU: Palomar Transient Factory --- Transients in The Local Universe Read Paper 1 on PTF10fqs and Read Paper 2 on PTF10bhp
Status
The phase space of optical transients in the year 2010 is shown below. The white-spaces are rapidly being filled in by new surveys (e.g. PTF, P60-FasTING), archival searches of ongoing surveys (e.g. KAIT) and serendipitous discoveries by amateur astronomers.
Additional Case Studies of Peculiar Transients or Extreme Supernovae
- GRB070610: A new class of fast X-ray novae? Read Paper or Press Release
- SN2007ax: An extremely faint, fast and red supernova Read Paper or Press Release
- SN2006gy: An extremely luminous supernova Read Paper