Possible new nova or dwarf nova outburst
ATel #15990; Paul Groot (Radboud University, UCT, SAAO), Paul Vreewsijk(Radboud), Kira Hanmer (UCT, SAAO, SARAO)
on 15 Apr 2023; 10:59 UT
Credential Certification: Paul Groot (p.groot@astro.ru.nl)
Subjects: Optical, Binary, Cataclysmic Variable, Nova, Transient
Paul Groot (Radboud/UCT/SAAO), Paul Vreeswijk (Radboud), Kira Hanmer (UCT/SARAO) and Cole Johnston (Radboud), on behalf of the MeerLICHT consortium, report the discovery of a new nova or dwarf nova variable, MLT J130353.92-644710.1, located at RA = 13:03:53.92, Dec = -64:47:10.1 (ICRS), with a 1-sigma location uncertainty of 0.07 arcsec in each coordinate.
The source was found to be in outburst with a >4 magnitude amplitude using the 0.6m MeerLICHT wide-field imaging telescope at SAAO Sutherland on 2023-04-14 19:51:04, while twinned with the MeerKAT radio array, in a series of observations using multi-band photometry:
q_AB = 15.17 +/- 0.01 at 2023-04-14 19:51:04 UT
g_AB = 15.10 +/- 0.01 at 2023-04-14 19:52:23 UT
i_AB = 15.24 +/- 0.01 at 2023-04-14 19:55:33 UT
u_AB = 15.25 +/- 0.01 at 2023-04-14 19:58:31 UT
r_AB = 15.18 +/- 0.01 at 2023-04-14 20:01:27 UT
Thirty-three previous epochs with MeerLICHT since 2019-06-14 show no variable behaviour in the underlying quiescent source which was last detected at:
q_AB = 19.32 +/- 0.10 at 2023-04-09 20:00:06
g_AB = 19.31 +/- 0.17 at 2023-04-09 20:02:54
i_AB = 18.71 +/- 0.16 at 2023-04-09 20:04:24
u_AB = 19.53 +/- 0.41 at 2023-04-09 20:07:22
r_AB = 19:17 +/- 0.18 at 2023-04-09 20:10:23
Gaia DR3 photometry shows a quiescent source, Gaia DR3 5862002885860903552, at G=19.25 +/- 0.02, BP = 19.28 +/- 0.10 , RP=18.67 +/- 0.10 with a parallax of 1.19 +/- 0.20 mas.
Archival ATLAS photometry confirms the current outburst and shows one archival outburst, first detected on MJD = 59797 (2022-08-6) strengthening the possible compact binary nature of this source.
No source is known in SIMBAD at the reported coordinates. Photometric and spectroscopic follow-up is encouraged.
MeerLICHT is designed, built and run by a consortium consisting of Radboud University, University of Cape Town, the South African Astronomical Observatory, the University of Oxford, the University of Manchester and the University of Amsterdam. We acknowledge, and are grateful for, the publicly available Gaia and ATLAS archives at https://gea.esac.esa.int/archive/ and https://fallingstar-data.com/forcedphot/
