Title: Finding Hidden Supernovae with Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics on
Gemini
Author(s): Stuart Ryder (Australian Gemini Office), Seppo Mattila (Tuorla
Observatory), Erkki Kankare (Tuorla Observatory)
Abstract:

Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs) ought to be the ideal hunting
grounds for core-collapse supernovae on account of their prodigious
star formation rates, and yet hardly any have been found. LIRGs are
however very dusty, quite distant, and clumpy in appearance, so
optical searches are doomed to fail. Adaptive optics imaging in the
near-infrared overcomes most of these problems, but the number of
LIRGs bright enough to guide on or having natural guide stars is very
small. We are undertaking a 2 year monitoring campaign with the ALTAIR
Laser Guide Star system on Gemini North of 9 LIRGs, and have already
found one new (SN 2008cs) and one historical (SN 2004iq) supernova in
the LIRG IRAS 17138-1017. SN 2008cs has the highest extinction (18 mag
in V) of any known supernova, suggesting we have indeed been missing a
substantial population of core-collapse supernovae. We expect to find
many more still, as otherwise the use of far-infrared luminosity as a
measure of the massive star formation rate in LIRGs must be called
into question.
the orbital period of 3.19 days. Since