On 2014 Dec. 9.61, the All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN or Assassin) discovered ASASSN-14lp just $sim2$ days after first light using a global array of 14-cm diameter telescopes. ASASSN-14lp went on to become a bright supernova ($V = 1
1.94$ mag), second only to SN 2014J for the year. We present prediscovery photometry (with a detection less than a day after first light) and ultraviolet through near-infrared photometric and spectroscopic data covering the rise and fall of ASASSN-14lp for more than 100 days. We find that ASASSN-14lp had a broad light curve ($Delta m_{15}(B) = 0.80 pm 0.05$), a $B$-band maximum at $2457015.82 pm 0.03$, a rise time of $16.94^{+ 0.11 }_{- 0.10 }$ days, and moderate host--galaxy extinction ($E(B-V)_{textrm{host}} = 0.33 pm 0.06$). Using ASASSN-14lp we derive a distance modulus for NGC 4666 of $mu = 30.8 pm 0.2$ corresponding to a distance of $14.7 pm 1.5$ Mpc. However, adding ASASSN-14lp to the calibrating sample of Type Ia supernovae still requires an independent distance to the host galaxy. Finally, using our early-time photometric and spectroscopic observations, we rule out red giant secondaries and, assuming a favorable viewing angle and explosion time, any non-degenerate companion larger than $0.34 R_{textrm{sun}}$.
After the All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN) discovered a significant brightening of the inner region of NGC 2617, we began a ~70 day photometric and spectroscopic monitoring campaign from the X-ray through near-infrared (NIR) waveleng
ths. We report that NGC 2617 went through a dramatic outburst, during which its X-ray flux increased by over an order of magnitude followed by an increase of its optical/ultraviolet (UV) continuum flux by almost an order of magnitude. NGC 2617, classified as a Seyfert 1.8 galaxy in 2003, is now a Seyfert 1 due to the appearance of broad optical emission lines and a continuum blue bump. Such changing look Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are rare and provide us with important insights about AGN physics. Based on the Hbeta line width and the radius-luminosity relation, we estimate the mass of central black hole to be (4 +/- 1) x 10^7 M_sun. When we cross-correlate the light curves, we find that the disk emission lags the X-rays, with the lag becoming longer as we move from the UV (2-3 days) to the NIR (6-9 days). Also, the NIR is more heavily temporally smoothed than the UV. This can largely be explained by a simple model of a thermally emitting thin disk around a black hole of the estimated mass that is illuminated by the observed, variable X-ray fluxes.
Over a broad range of initial inclinations and eccentricities an appreciable fraction of hierarchical triple star systems with similar masses are essentially unaffected by the Kozai-Lidov mechanism (KM) until the primary in the central binary evolves
into a compact object. Once it does, it may be much less massive than the other components in the ternary, enabling the eccentric Kozai mechanism (EKM): the mutual inclination between the inner and outer binary can flip signs driving the inner binary to very high eccentricity, leading to a close binary or collision. We demonstrate this Mass-loss Induced Eccentric Kozai (MIEK) mechanism by considering an example system and defining an ad-hoc minimal separation between the inner two members at which tidal affects become important. For fixed initial masses and semi-major axes, but uniform distributions of eccentricity and cosine of the mutual inclination, ~10% of systems interact tidally or collide while the primary is on the MS due to the KM or EKM. Those affected by the EKM are not captured by earlier quadrupole-order secular calculations. We show that fully ~30% of systems interact tidally or collide for the first time as the primary swells to AU scales, mostly as a result of the KM. Finally, ~2% of systems interact tidally or collide for the first time after the primary sheds most of its mass and becomes a WD, mostly as a result of the MIEK mechanism. These findings motivate a more detailed study of mass-loss in triple systems and the formation of close NS/WD-MS and NS/WD-NS/WD binaries without an initial common envelope phase.
