2006CBET..396....2W

L. Wang, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; D. Baade and F. Patat, European Southern Observatory; and J. C. Wheeler, University of Texas, Austin, report on their acquisition of spectropolarimetric data (range 330-850 nm) of SN 2006X using the Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory on Feb. 9 UT: "The polarization is as high as 8 percent in the blue and decreases approximately linearly to about 3.5 percent in the red. The spectropolarization is significantly different from that typical for extinguished Galactic stars. This may suggest that the dust properties in NGC 4321 are very different from the Galaxy or that the dust and polarizations are of circumstellar origin (see Wang 2005, Ap.J. 635, L33). The data also show polarized spectral features from most spectral lines, noticeably from the Ca II infrared triplet and Si II 635.5-nm, at levels around 1 percent."