2012CBET.2992....2S

A spectrum, obtained on 2012 Jan. 21.37 UT with the 9.2-m Hobby-Eberly Telescope (+ Marcario Low-Resolution Spectrograph) by Matthew Shetrone, shows that 2012O is a typa-Ia supernova about a week past maximum. Beside the characteristic Si II, S II, and Fe II features, the spectrum also contains many weak, narrow absorption features, probably due to the contamination by the host galaxy. The SNID code (Blondin and Tonry 2007, Ap.J. 666, 1024) finds good matches with several normal type-Ia-supernova templates, including SN 2004L at six days and SN 2001fh at eight days after maximum. The redshift estimated by SNID agrees with the value given in SIMBAD (see above) for NGC 4906. The expansion velocity at the photosphere, inferred from the absorption minimum of the Si II 635.5-nm feature, is 9850 km/s.