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IAUC 8094: 2003cb; UNUSUAL Var OBJECT IN Leo; C/2002 V1

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                                                  Circular No. 8094
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Mailstop 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions)
CBAT@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
URL http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html  ISSN 0081-0304
Phone 617-495-7440/7244/7444 (for emergency use only)


SUPERNOVA 2003cb IN NGC 4885
     Further to IAUC 8093, M. Schwartz and P. R. Holvorcem report
the LOTOSS discovery of a supernova (mag 17.9) on unfiltered
Tenagra II CCD images taken on Mar. 13.4 and 15.4 UT.  SN 2003cb is
located at R.A. = 13h00m33s.25, Decl. = -6 51'09".3 (equinox
2000.0), which is 10".1 west and 1".7 north of the center of NGC
4885.  An image taken on Feb. 7.5 showed nothing at this position
(limiting mag about 19.3).


UNUSUAL VARIABLE OBJECT IN LEO
     Further to IAUC 8093, A. Becker also reports the discovery of
an unknown object, located at R.A. = 10h53m45s.79, Decl. =
-5 37'44".3 (equinox 2000.0), that shows unusual short-timescale
variability and is possibly associated with a very faint red galaxy.
Magnitudes for the object:  Mar. 5.17 UT, V = [23.5; 5.19, V = 21.9;
5.20, B = 22.3; 5.21, B = 21.6; 5.22, B = 21.5; 5.22, B = 21.6;
5.23, B = 21.8; 7.3, V = [25; 10.4, V = [24.


COMET C/2002 V1 (NEAT)
     C. B. Cosmovici, Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio
Interplanetario, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, reports
that he and the rest of the ITASEL team of the Medicina 32-m radio
telescope (M. Teodorani, S. Montebugnoli, and G. Maccaferri)
detected the 22-GHz water-maser line in comet C/2002 V1 at
perihelion, using a fast, high-resolution spectrum analyzer (8192
channels; bandwidth 8 MHz) on Feb. 17, 18, and 19 (when r =
0.101-0.121 AU), during the strong coronal mass ejection (CME)
detected by the SOHO spacecraft.  The beam size was 2',
corresponding to an observed region at the comet of about 80000 km.
The mean antenna temperature was 140 +/- 38 mK, giving an
integrated flux of 0.70 +/- 0.17 Jy km/s (FHWM = 47 KHz).  The
neutral water molecules show a velocity shift of -12.2 km/s with
respect to the nucleus, confirming the previously observed peculiar
strong acceleration of neutral water molecules in C/1996 B2 at
perihelion (Cosmovici et al. 1998, Planet. Space Sci. 46, 467; in
C/1996 B2, the shift varied between 22 and 44 km/s).  Neutral water
molecules normally are ejected from the nucleus at velocities
around 1 km/s.  This peculiarity could be explained by assuming the
sublimation of excited water molecules from accelerated ionized icy
grains that form an extended source around the nucleus.  The strong
CME may have contributed to the acceleration mechanism.  Evaluation
of the water-production rate is in progress.

                      (C) Copyright 2003 CBAT
2003 March 16                  (8094)            Daniel W. E. Green

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