VVV-NOV-007: the seventh Galactic nova candidate discovered by the VVV Survey
ATel #8551; L. A. Gutierrez (Dept of Physical Sciences, Univ. Andres Bello, Chile, and Millennium Institute of Astrophysics), R. K. Saito (Univ. Fed. de Sergipe, Brazil), D. Minniti (Dept of Physical Sciences, Univ. Andres Bello, Chile, and Millennium Institute of Astrophysics)
on 15 Jan 2016; 17:01 UT
Credential Certification: Roberto Saito (saito@ufs.br)
Subjects: Infra-Red, Nova, Transient
We report the discovery of the seventh likely Galactic nova in the VVV Survey data (vvvsurvey.org; Minniti et al. 2010, New Astronomy, 15, 433). Observations taken during 2010-2013 show the presence of a stellar source fading in brightness from May 21 2012 to June 11 2013 (see table below). The light curve follows the expected behavior of a nova outburst, with VVV-NOV-007 fading by Delta_Ks>5.8 mag over 387 days.
The coordinates of VVV-NOV-007 are RA, DEC= 13:12:22.41, -64:09:05.4 (J2000), corresponding to (l,b)= 305.211, -1.372 deg. Previous VVV observations taken during 2010 and 2011 show no detection at the target position, which allow us to infer the nova remnant was fainter than the limiting magnitude of Ks=17.9 mag in the field. The nova outburst occurred between March 9 2012, the last 2012 observation with no detection, and May 21 2012, when the object is first detected as a saturated source with Ks=9.45 mag.
We estimate from the Schlegel et al. (1998) the extinction for a 2 arcmin region around the target position is A_V=5.31 mag, corresponding to A_K=0.65.
There are no previous entries in the literature for the target position.
VVV-NOV-007 Table of Observations
Date (UT) Ks (mag) flag
2010-02-19.3348 beyond detection
2010-03-01.2376 beyond detection
2010-03-05.2810 beyond detection
2010-03-16.1730 beyond detection
2010-03-17.1702 beyond detection
2010-03-17.2691 beyond detection
2011-08-05.0066 beyond detection
2011-08-07.0155 beyond detection
2011-08-07.9804 beyond detection
2011-08-14.9933 beyond detection
2012-03-8.14960 beyond detection
2012-03-9.16320 beyond detection
2012-05-21.1729 9.456+/-0,010 -9
2013-02-05.3637 13.109+/-0,010 -1
2013-03-11.2448 13.840+/-0,012 -1
2013-03-21.0985 14.034+/-0,017 -2
2013-03-22.1651 14.053+/-0,018 -2
2013-03-23.1118 14.078+/-0,015 -2
2013-03-24.1152 14.051+/-0,018 -2
2013-03-25.0880 14.077+/-0,019 -2
2013-03-28.2569 14.170+/-0,014 -1
2013-04-26.0192 14.609+/-0,026 -1
2013-05-06.1681 14.794+/-0,027 -1
2013-05-07.2235 14.780+/-0,025 -1
2013-05-13.2107 14.946+/-0,042 -2
2013-05-16.1767 14.959+/-0,036 -1
2013-05-20.0082 14.935+/-0,029 -1
2013-05-26.1334 15.020+/-0,039 -1
2013-05-26.9720 15.122+/-0,042 +1
2013-06-02.1601 15.142+/-0,039 -1
2013-06-05.1571 15.231+/-0,042 -1
2013-06-07.1805 15.211+/-0,042 -1
2013-06-11.1237 15.258+/-0,037 -1
2013-06-11.1635 15.248+/-0,037 -1
2013-06-11.9670 15.280+/-0,055 -1
The VVV data are in the natural VISTA Vegamag system.
Photometric flags are described in Saito et al. 2012 (A&A, 537, A107):
-1 stellar object
+1 non-stellar object
-2 borderline stellar
-9 saturated stars
Acknowledgments: We gratefully acknowledge use of data from the ESO Public Survey programme ID 179.B-2002 taken with the VISTA telescope, and data products from the Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit.
