The recent Giant NIR flare of the Blazar CTA102
ATel #10007; L. Carrasco, J. Miramon, E. Recillas, A. Porras, V. Chavushyan, D. Y. Mayya (INAOE, Mexico)
on 26 Jan 2017; 03:01 UT
Credential Certification: LUIS CARRASCO (carrasco@inaoep.mx)
Subjects: Radio, Infra-Red, Optical, AGN, Blazar, Quasar
Referred to by ATel #: 10292
Following the reports of the multiwavelength enhanced activity (Atel #9901, #9911, #9924) of the high redshift (z=1.037) Blazar CTA102 also known as [HB89] 2230+114, cross correlated with the Gamma-ray source 2FGL J2232.4+1143 and radio source 4C+11.69, we carried out NIR photometry of this
object on January 8th, 2017 (MJD 2457761.619398), finding that it was undergoing an extreme flare.
At that time the NIR fluxes corresponded to J = 9.978 +/- 0.06, H = 9.187 +/- 0.05 and Ks = 8.501 +/- 0.05. These are to be compared with the fluxes previously determined by our team. On MJD 2457706.7509, the object had J = 11.825 +/- 0.04, H = 10.898 +/- 0.05 and Ks = 10.144 +/-0.05.
Hence the object has had a very important flux rise in this time lapse. It is brighter by a factor of 100 with respect to the fluxes determined by the 2MASS survey. Our observations are carried out with the 2.1m telescope of the Guillermo Haro Observatory operated by the National Institute for Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (Mexico), equipped with the instrument CANICA a NIR camera. We strongly encourage further multiwavelength coverage.
