Our group is one of the leading nodes of
NUTS, which is a long-term
observational follow-up programme led by researchers from Denmark,
Finland, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Sweden to study peculiar transients in the optical
and near-infrared domains. We aim at studying nearby supernovae and
and transients discovered
within hours to days after outburst by the main surveys, including
the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN), the Asteroid
Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), the Zwicky Transient Facility
(ZTF), the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS),
and the Gravitational-Wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO).
Particular interests is devoted to gap transients, and transients discovered in nuclear regions
of galaxies (supernovae, tidal-disruption
events, unpredicatble AGN behaviours; this is the Thesis subject of our MSci student Irene Salmaso).
We use the 2.56m Nordic Optical
Telescope (NOT) with ALFOSC and NOTCam for a rapid spectroscopic
classification and subsequent follow-up of these transient events. NUTS/NUTS2 targets are also supported
by complementary observations performed with the Asiago Observatory facilities, Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), Liverpool Telescope and The Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). Equatorial NUTS/NUTS2 targets are also followed by Southern facilities (the New Technology Telescope via PESSTO/ePESSTO+, PROMPT and REM).
NUTS was a 3-years project initiated in Spring 2016, and has been later extended by
further 3 years (NUTS2). It has been awarded by about 70 hours per semester in
ToO mode, and 12 half-nights per semester in service (queuing) mode (including
Italian NOT-TNG exchange time, and Opticon time from the Irish team).
NUTS2 Council Members
- Erkki Kankare (University of Turku)
- Nancy Elias-Rosa (INAF-OAPd; IEEC)
- Peter Lundqvist (Stockholm University)
- Andrea Pastorello (INAF-OAPd)
- Max Stritzinger (University of Aarhus)
- Morgan Fraser (University College Dublin)
OAPd Operational Team Members:
- Andrea Reguitti, Thomas Reynolds & Morgan Fraser (NUTS2 - ALFOSC Service Time)
- Enrico Cappellaro - NUTS-ALFOSC data reduction tools
- Giorgio Valerin, Andrea Reguitti, Achille Fiore, Nancy Elias-Rosa, Andrea Pastorello - OAPd people in the ToO team.