The Fading Radio Emission from SN 1961V: Evidence for a Type II Peculiar Supernova?

Using the Very Large Array (VLA), we have detected radio emission from the site of SN 1961V in the Sc galaxy NGC 1058. With a peak flux density of 0.063 ± 0.008 mJy beam-1 at 6 cm and 0.147 ± 0.026 mJy beam-1 at 18 cm, the source is nonthermal, with a spectral index of -0.79 ± 0.23. Within errors, this spectral index is the same value reported for previous VLA observations taken in 1984 and 1986. The radio emission at both wavelengths has decayed since the mid-1980s observations with power-law indices of β20 cm = -0.69 ± 0.23 and β6 cm = -1.75 ± 0.16. We discuss the radio properties of this source and compare them with those of Type II radio supernovae and luminous blue variables.