We report the discovery of a confirmed supernova ( SN ) and a supernova-candidate in near-infrared images from the ALTAIR/NIRI adaptive optics system on the Gemini-North Telescope and NICMOS on the Hubble Space Telescope . The Gemini images were obtained as part of a near-infrared K -band search for highly-obscured SNe in the nuclear regions of luminous infrared galaxies . ( catalog SN 2008cs ) apparent in the Gemini images is the first SN discovered using laser guide star adaptive optics . It is located at 1500 pc projected distance from the nucleus of the luminous infrared galaxy ( catalog IRAS 17138-1017 ) . The SN luminosity , JHK colors and light curve are consistent with a core-collapse event suffering from a very high host galaxy extinction of 15.7 \pm 0.8 magnitudes in V -band which is to our knowledge the highest yet measured for a SN . The core-collapse nature of SN 2008cs is confirmed by its radio detection at 22.4 GHz using our Very Large Array observations 28 days after the SN discovery , indicating a prominent interaction of the SN ejecta with the circumstellar medium . An unconfirmed SN apparent in the NICMOS images from 2004 is located in the same galaxy at 660 pc projected distance from the nucleus and has a lower extinction .