Swift observation of Nova OGLE-2012-NOVA-002
ATel #4500; N. Masetti (INAF/IASF, Bologna), A. Paggi (CfA, Harvard), F. Massaro (Stanford Univ.), P. Parisi (INAF/IAPS, Roma) and R. Angeloni (PUC, Santiago)
on 19 Oct 2012; 16:24 UT
Credential Certification: Nicola Masetti (masetti@iasfbo.inaf.it)
Subjects: Ultra-Violet, X-ray, Nova, Transient
The nova OGLE-2012-NOVA-002 (ATels #4483, #4485, #4487)
was observed with the XRT and UVOT instruments onboard
the Swift satellite. Observations began on October 18,
2012, at 16:33 UT and lasted about 3800 seconds for both
instruments.
The UVOT data, acquired in the UVW2 filter (central
wavelength: 1928 Angstroms; Poole et al. 2008, MNRAS,
383, 627), allow a detection of the source at magnitude
14.44 +- 0.04 (Vega system); this indicates that the nova
is relatively quite bright in the ultraviolet.
On the contrary, with the XRT pointing we do not detect the
source down to a 3-sigma upper limit of 0.005 counts s-1
in the 0.3-10 keV band.
This, assuming a blackbody spectrum with temperature
0.5 keV implies a flux limit of 1.4e-13 erg cm-2 s-1 which,
at the distance of the SMC (60.6 kpc; Hilditch et al. 2005,
MNRAS, 357, 304), corresponds to a luminosity upper limit
of about 6e34 erg s-1 in that band.
We thank Neil Gehrels, Jamie Kennea and the Swift team
for having quickly set up and performed the requested
Target-of-Opportunity observation.
