The Low-z Carnegie Supernova Project (CSP)

FOLATELLI, GASTÓN

Conferencia; XI IAU Regional Latin American Meeting of Astronomy; 2005

We present the results from the first year of the low-redshift part of the Carnegie Supernova Project (CSP). The low-z CSP is carried out mainly at the Las Campanas Observatory and consists of a five-year follow-up program of optical/near-infrared photometry, and optical spectroscopy observations of supernovae (SNe) of all types with redshift z < 0.07 (see Hamuy et al. 2006, PASP, 118, 2) The goal of the project is to provide an extensive, homogeneous set of high-quality data which would serve to improve our understanding of SNe and refine their use as distance indicators. Each year, a nine-month observing campaign is carried out from September to May. The first campaign (2004-2005) yielded optical (u'g'r'i'BV) light curves for a total of 39 SNe (17 Ia, 13 II, 9 Ibc), and near-infrared (YJHK_s) light curves for 25 of them. Definitive light curves will be obtained next year, once images of the host galaxies are available for subtraction. Nonetheless, in cases with low host-galaxy contamination, the scatter in the light curves is typically as good as 0.01-0.02 mag. In addition to the photometry, over 200 spectra were collected which cover SNe of all types at different evolution phases. Such a large data set contains precious information and some startling surprises! (See Folatelli et al. 2006, ApJ, 641, 1039).