Discovery of the heavily obscured supernova 2002cv

Abstract

\n On the 13th of May 2002, <ext-link ext-link-type="aoi">supernova 2002cv</ext-link> was\ndiscovered using a near-infrared camera working at the 1.1 m\ntelescope at Campo Imperatore (AQ-Italy). After the infrared\ndetection a simultaneous photometric follow-up was started at\noptical wavelengths. The preliminary results confirm a heavily\nobscured object with a $V-K$ color not lower than 6 mag,\nmaking <ext-link ext-link-type="aoi">SN 2002cv</ext-link> the most reddened supernova ever\nobserved. This finding, along with the recent discovery of another\nobscured supernova, suggests a critical revision of the rates\nknown to date. The estimate of the visual extinction and the light\ncurves are provided here. These latter indicate that our <ext-link ext-link-type="aoi">SN 2002cv</ext-link>\nobservations are the earliest available for a type-Ia supernova at\nIR wavelengths. \n