2008CBET.1411....1H

A. Harutyunyan and S. Benetti, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova; S. Taubenberger, Max-Planck-Institut fuer Astrophysik; and F. Ghinassi and V. Lorenzi, Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), report that a spectrum of 2008db (cf. CBET 1407), obtained on June 19.18 UT with the 3.5-m TNG (+ DOLORES; range 340-778 nm, resolution 1.1 nm), shows it to be a type-Ia supernova. The best fit to this spectrum found by GELATO (Harutyunyan et al. 2008, http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/0804.1939) is with that of the type-Ia supernova 1996X at 24 days after maximum (Salvo et al. 2001, MNRAS 321, 254). Adopting a recession velocity of 5701 km/s for the host galaxy (Theureau et al. 1998, A.Ap. Suppl. 130, 333; via NED), the expansion velocity derived from the Si II 635.5-nm absorption minimum is about 9700 km/s.