2008/04/30 by A. Rau, E. O. Ofek, S. R. Kulkarni +4 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Absolute magnitude #Apparent magnitude #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Flare #Fornax Cluster #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy cluster #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Limiting magnitude #Luminosity #Luminosity function #Magnitude (astronomy) #Physics #Stars #Supernova #Telescope #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/589762
published as ApJ, 682, 1205 (2008) · final version, 13 pages, 15 figures, emulateapj.sty
openalex publication_date 2008/07/29 · arxiv created 2008/07/31 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The luminosity gap between novae ( M R ⩽ − 10) and supernovae ( M R ⩾ − 14) has been well known since the pioneering research of Zwicky and Hubble. Nearby galaxy clusters and concentrations offer an excellent opportunity to search for explosions brighter than classical novae and fainter than supernovae. Here we present the results of a B -band survey of 23 member galaxies of the Fornax Cluster, performed at the Las Campanas 2.5 m Irénée du Pont telescope. Observations with a cadence of 32 minutes discovered no genuine fast transient to a limiting absolute magnitude of M B = − 9.3 mag. We provide a detailed assessment of the transient detection efficiency and the resulting upper limits on the event rate as function of peak magnitude. Further, we discuss the discoveries of five previously unknown foreground variables which we identified as two flare stars, two W UMa-type eclipsing binaries and a candidate δ Scuti/SX Phe star.