2011CBET.2651....2V

S. Valenti and S. Benetti, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, on behalf of a larger collaboration, report that a spectrogram (range 380-820 nm, resolution 1.1 nm) of SN 2011U (cf. CBET 2649), obtained on Feb. 4.82 UT with the Ekar-Copernicus 1.82-m telescope (+ AFOSC), shows the new object to be a type-Ia supernova at maximum. Comparison of the observed spectrum with a library of supernova spectra via the "GELATO" code (Harutyunyan et al. 2008, A.Ap. 488, 383; available at website URL https://gelato.tng.iac.es/login.cgi) shows 2011U to be similar to SN 1990N at two days after maximum. The expansion velocity, obtained from the Si II 635.5-nm feature, is about 10500 km/s.