The distance to NGC3982, host galaxy to the Type Ia supernova SN1998aq, is derived using 32 Cepheids discovered in archival multi-epoch Hubble Space Telescope observations. Employing recent Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheid period-luminosity relations and absolute zero point, we find a distance to NGC3982 of 20.5+/-0.8(r)+/-1.7(s) Mpc, including both random (r) and systematic (s) uncertainties, and ignoring any metallicity dependency in the Cepheid period-luminosity relation. Still unpublished light curve photometry promises to make SN1998aq one of the most important calibrators for the Type Ia supernova decline rate-peak luminosity relationship.
Categories: astro-ph