During the nights of 3 and 4 October, spectroscopy data obtained by the ePESSTO+ collaboration with ESO's NTT telescope at La Silla, Chile, allowed 12 transients (new bright spots in the sky) to be classified as supernovae. The CENTRA team that participated in the work of the ePESSTO+ was led by Santiago Gonzalez-Gaitán, a CENTRA researcher, and also included João Duarte and Rita Santos, both PhD students at CENTRA.
As soon as the Chilean night ended, the CENTRA team in Lisbon received the spectroscopy data from previously unknown objects. With this data, it was possible to classify each type of transient. The results of the classifications were published in two Astronotes, and are the starting point for other teams to continue studying these objects.
The transients classified by the CENTRA team are supernovae that resulted from the explosion of massive stars or that were part of binary systems (with two stars). These exploding stars were all in galaxies millions of light years away.
A summary of the classifications can be found here:
https://www.wis-tns.org/astronotes/astronote/2024-281
https://www.wis-tns.org/astronotes/astronote/2024-284
*ePESSTO+ collaboration: https://www.pessto.org/
