Other designations SN 2005bc Spectral class Ia | Event type Supernova Date 2 April 2005 Right ascension 14 37 15.050 | |
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SN 2005bc was a Type Ia supernova occurring in the Barred spiral galaxy NGC 5698 in the constellation of Boötes. SN 2005bc was discovered on 2 April 2005 by LOSS and independently by Tim Puckett and L. Cox.
Discovery
The supernova was at magnitude 16.4 at discovery, and quickly rose to a peak magnitude of around 15.3 (in visible light) just over a week after discovery. By mid-May, the supernova had faded to 17th magnitude.
The host galaxy, NGC 5698, along with the supernova lie approximately 200 million light-years (~60 million parsecs) from Earth. This puts the absolute magnitude of the supernova at around −18.6 at maximum, rather faint for a Type Ia event.
As the supernova was of Type Ia, its progenitor star was a White Dwarf star which exceeded the Chandrasekhar limit.
Below is an image of SN 2005bc and NGC 5698 taken just over a week after peak brightness.