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The likely progenitor of Nova ASASSN-17gk

ATel #10404; R. K. Saito (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina), D. Minniti (Univ. Andres Bello, Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, Vatican Observatory)
on 19 May 2017; 20:14 UT
Credential Certification: Roberto Saito (saito@astro.ufsc.br)

Subjects: Infra-Red, Nova

Stanek et al. (ATel #10387) recently reported the detection of a likely Galactic Nova in the Milky Way disk, confirmed by spectroscopic observations by the ARAS Group (Luckas 2016, ATel #10399). Nova ASASSN-17gk is located at coordinates RA, DEC (J2000) = 13:20:55.32, -63:42:18.5, corresponding to l,b = 306.187,-1.02, within the area covered by the VVV Survey in the Galactic disk (vvvsurvey.org; Minniti et al. 2010, New Astronomy, 15, 433).

Multiband near-IR VVV observations taken in 2010 show the presence of a faint source 0.822 arcsec apart from the reported target position. During the 2010-2013 seasons VVV Ks-band observations of the likely progenitor of Nova ASASSN-17gk shows no significant variation in brightness with mean_Ks=16.609+/-0.152, which is within the VVV photometric errors at these magnitudes. Other nearby sources found in the VVV data are 2 arcs apart from the reported target position.

According to the VVV reddening maps, assuming the Cardelli et al. (1989, ApJ, 345, 245) extinction law, the mean extinction for the region around the source position is A_K=0.58 mag, corresponding to A_V=4.9 mag.

The VVV coordinates and magnitudes for the likely progenitor of Nova ASASSN-17gk are listed below.

  
VVV ID: VVV J132055.37-634219.2 
RA, DEC(J2000) = 13:20:55.371, -63:42:19.25 
L,B = -53.8094, -1.0203 
Z  = 18.769+/-0.043 -1 
Y  = 17.922+/-0.039 -1 
J  = 17.339+/-0.038 -2 
H  = 16.807+/-0.051 -1 
Ks = 16.565+/-0.075  1 
VVV Ks-band variability data
 
MJD  Ks-mag  Ks-err  flag 
55246.34324926 16.543 0.120 -1 
55256.24290568 16.536 0.123  1 
55260.28582470 16.581 0.130 -1 
55271.17743282 16.747 0.146  1 
55272.17467486 16.521 0.122  1 
55272.28560182 16.565 0.075  1 
55778.01228486 16.256 0.112  1 
55780.02122585 16.362 0.123 -1 
55780.98613482 16.495 0.130  1 
55788.00002175 16.397 0.117  1 
55994.15509239 16.710 0.182  1 
55995.16857381 16.876 0.198  1 
56068.17904881 16.417 0.112  1 
56328.37015538 no detection 
56362.25114964 16.730 0.152  1 
56372.10434131 no detection 
56373.17168127 16.713 0.186  1 
56374.11832723 16.613 0.140  1 
56375.12205813 16.755 0.164  1 
56376.09396734 no detection 
56379.26834194 16.469 0.113  1 
56408.02525697 16.594 0.156  1 
56418.17370521 16.744 0.165  1 
56419.22890816 16.505 0.119  1 
56425.21647521 no detection 
56428.18397697 16.899 0.190  1 
56432.01436825 16.671 0.140  1 
56438.13948018 16.674 0.178  1 
56438.97794250 no detection 
56445.16557664 16.847 0.209 -1 
56448.16299734 16.596 0.167  1 
56450.18630417 16.714 0.171  1 
56454.12961862 16.554 0.122  1 
56454.16951011 16.453 0.123  1 
56454.97276725 16.728 0.175  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 corresponds to a stellar object, whereas +1 to a non-stellar source.

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. R.K.S. acknowledges support from CNPq/Brazil.