ULTRALUMINOUS SUPERNOVAE AS A NEW PROBE OF THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM IN DISTANT GALAXIES
ULTRALUMINOUS SUPERNOVAE AS A NEW PROBE OF THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM IN DISTANT GALAXIES
We present the Pan-STARRS1 discovery and light curves, and follow-up MMT and Gemini spectroscopy of an ultra-luminous supernova (ULSN; dubbed PS1-11bam) at a redshift of z=1.566 with a peak brightness of M_UV=-22.3 mag. PS1-11bam is one of the highest redshift spectroscopically-confirmed SNe known to date. The spectrum is characterized by …