Supernovae and their host galaxies. I. The SDSS DR8 database and
  statistics
  (Abridged) In this first paper of a series, we report the creation of large
and well-defined database that combines extensive new measurements and a
literature search of 3876 supernovae (SNe) and their 3679 host galaxies located
in the sky area covered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 8
(DR8). This database should be much larger than previous ones, and should
contain a homogenous set of global parameters of SN hosts, including
morphological classifications and measures of nuclear activity. The
measurements of apparent magnitudes, diameters (D25), axial ratios (b/a), and
position angles (PA) of SN host galaxies were made using the images extracted
from the SDSS g-band. For each host galaxy, we analyzed RGB images of the SDSS
to accurately measure the position of its nucleus to provide the SDSS name.
With these images, we also provide the host galaxy's morphological type, and
note if it has a bar, a disturbed disk, and whether it is part of an
interacting or merging system. In addition, the SDSS nuclear spectra were
analyzed to diagnose the central power source of the galaxies. Special
attention was paid to collect accurate data on the spectroscopic classes,
coordinates, offsets of SNe, and heliocentric redshifts of the host galaxies.
The creation of this large database will help to better understand how the
different types of SNe are correlated with the properties of the nuclei and
global physical parameters of the host galaxies, and minimize possible
selection effects and errors that often arise when data are selected from
different sources and catalogs.
