Detection of the Galactic Nova Candidate OGLE-2012-NOVA-01 by the VVV Survey
ATel #6452; R. K. Saito (Universidade Federal de Sergipe), D. Minniti (Universidad Andres Bello, Vatican Observatory, Millennium Institute of Astrophysics), I. Dekany (Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile), R. Angeloni (Gemini Observatory), M. Catelan (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Millennium Institute of Astrophysics)
on 7 Sep 2014; 00:01 UT
Credential Certification: Roberto Saito (rsaito@astro.puc.cl)
Subjects: Infra-Red, Nova, Transient
During our on going search for Galactic novae in the VVV Survey data (vvvsurvey.org; Minniti et al. 2010, New Astronomy, 15, 433), we have independently recovered OGLE-2012-NOVA-01 (Kozlowski et al. 2012, ATel #4323). We report that this object has not faded from detection yet, estimating its current magnitude to be Ks~15 mag, making spectroscopic follow up observations still feasible.
The VVV Survey coordinates for this object are (RA,DEC)=17:56:49.40,-27:13:28.15, corresponding to (l,b) =2.7345,-1.2488. We list the available VVV Survey photometry of OGLE-2012-NOVA-01 below. The source follows the expected behavior of a nova, fading by more than 4.1 mag in the Ks-band over 409 days. Previous VVV observations taken from March 2010 to April 2012 show no detection at the target position. Thus, the nova progenitor that had V>21.2, and I>20.2 mag in the OGLE observations, was also fainter than the limiting magnitude of Ks=16.8 mag in the VVV images.
According to the VVV reddening maps (Gonzalez et al., 2012, A&A, 543, 13), assuming the Nishiyama et al. (2009, ApJ, 696, 1407) extinction law appropriate for the region, the extinction for a 2 arcmin field around the target position is E(J-Ks)=1.05 mag, corresponding to AV=4.72 mag. If the progenitor is located in the bulge and if this mean absorption value applies, its observed color of (V-Ks)>4.4 mag yields an intrinsic color of (V-Ks)o>0.24 mag.
VVV Survey photometry of OGLE-2012-NOVA-01
Date (UT) filter mag flag
2010-03-28.34157 Ks beyond detection
2010-08-26.15235 Ks beyond detection
2011-08-21.18878 Ks beyond detection
2011-09-14.01928 Ks beyond detection
2011-09-25.08755 Ks beyond detection
2011-10-10.04805 Ks beyond detection
2011-10-24.00580 Ks beyond detection
2012-03-19.33298 Ks beyond detection
2012-04-03.26308 Ks beyond detection
2012-06-17.12069 Ks 11.03+/-0.01 -1
2012-06-24.22205 Ks 10.82+/-0.01 -9
2012-06-28.25712 Ks 11.02+/-0.01 -1
2012-07-01.12830 Ks 11.34+/-0.01 -1
2012-07-07.10115 Ks 11.14+/-0.01 -9
2012-07-17.21246 Ks 11.38+/-0.01 -1
2012-07-24.13353 Ks 11.52+/-0.01 -1
2012-07-25.20583 Ks 11.52+/-0.01 -1
2012-08-05.17372 Ks 11.68+/-0.01 -1
2012-08-07.19432 Ks 11.73+/-0.01 -1
2012-08-22.05750 Ks 11.84+/-0.01 -1
2012-08-23.13366 Ks 11.91+/-0.01 -1
2013-06-21.26472 Ks 14.74+/-0.07 -2
2013-07-03.04434 Ks 14.65+/-0.06 -2
2013-07-03.10849 Ks 14.68+/-0.06 -2
2013-07-04.01622 Ks 14.66+/-0.06 -2
2013-07-04.06790 Ks 14.66+/-0.06 -2
2013-07-04.11845 Ks 14.57+/-0.06 -2
2013-07-06.05168 Ks 14.80+/-0.07 -1
2013-07-06.19418 Ks 14.92+/-0.09 -1
2013-07-06.28780 Ks 14.86+/-0.09 -1
2013-07-07.19067 Ks 14.69+/-0.06 -2
2013-07-11.07629 Ks 14.66+/-0.06 -2
2013-08-05.97332 Ks 15.07+/-0.11 -2
2013-08-06.10612 Ks 14.94+/-0.08 -2
2013-08-07.10746 Ks 14.91+/-0.08 -2
The VVV data are in the natural VISTA Vegamag system. Photometric flags are described in Saito et al. 2012 (A&A, 537, A107)
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. R.K.S. acknowledges support from CNPq/Brazil.