VVV-NOV-006: the sixth Galactic nova candidate discovered by the VVV Survey
ATel #7241; K. Montenegro (Universidad Andres Bello), D. Minniti (Universidad Andres Bello, Vatican Observatory, Millennium Institute of Astrophysics), R. K. Saito (Universidade Federal de Sergipe)
on 17 Mar 2015; 21:46 UT
Credential Certification: Roberto Saito (saito@ufs.br)
Subjects: Infra-Red, Nova, Transient
We report the discovery of the sixth likely Galactic nova in the VVV Survey data (vvvsurvey.org; Minniti et al. 2010, New Astronomy, 15, 433). Observations taken during 2011-2013 show the presence of a stellar source fading in brightness from August 05 2011 to September 28 2013 (see table below). The light curve follows the expected behavior of a nova outburst, with VVV-NOV-006 fading by Delta_Ks>7.5 mag over 785 days.
The coordinates of VVV-NOV-006 are RA, DEC= 17:54:52.68, -24:41:31.6 (J2000), corresponding to (l, b)= 4.7024, 0.4040 deg. A VVV observation taken on August 17 2010 shows no detection at the target position, allowing us to infer that the nova progenitor was fainter than the limiting magnitude of Ks=17.1 mag in the field. Similarly, the nova remnant is not detectable in several observation taken during the 2014 season. There is a faint stellar neighbor about 0.6 arcsec away from the nova position, which is certainly not the nova remnant.
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, the extinction for a 2 arcmin region around the target position is E(J-Ks)=2.06, corresponding to AV=9.2 mag.
There are no previous entries in the literature for the target position.
VVV-NOV-006 Table of Observations
Date (UT) Ks (mag) flag
2010-08-17.0916 beyond detection
2011-08-05.1723 7.72+/-0.01 -9
2011-08-08.1917 7.92+/-0.01 -9
2011-09-26.0356 9.43+/-0.01 -9
2012-03-01.3679 11.53+/-0.01 -1
2012-03-13.3471 11.73+/-0.01 -1
2012-03-31.3802 12.09+/-0.01 -1
2012-06-04.1830 13.29+/-0.01 -9
2012-06-11.1164 13.42+/-0.02 -2
2012-06-15.1260 13.48+/-0.02 -2
2012-06-22.0632 13.55+/-0.02 -2
2012-06-23.0922 13.54+/-0.02 -2
2012-07-05.2318 13.73+/-0.02 -2
2012-07-26.2221 13.92+/-0.03 -2
2012-08-05.1480 14.03+/-0.03 +1
2012-08-06.0068 14.01+/-0.03 -2
2012-08-15.1722 14.11+/-0.03 +1
2012-08-16.0790 14.13+/-0.03 -2
2012-08-19.0849 14.14+/-0.03 +1
2012-08-19.1267 14.13+/-0.03 -2
2012-08-20.1041 14.10+/-0.03 -2
2012-08-30.0629 14.17+/-0.03 -2
2012-08-30.1419 14.20+/-0.03 +1
2012-09-26.0811 14.21+/-0.03 -2
2012-10-08.0601 14.37+/-0.04 -2
2013-03-02.3876 14.46+/-0.04 +1
2013-03-09.3957 14.92+/-0.06 -2
2013-03-18.3314 14.90+/-0.06 -2
2013-03-27.3924 14.95+/-0.06 -2
2013-06-26.2904 14.90+/-0.06 -2
2013-07-14.0372 15.28+/-0.12 -1
2013-08-06.0156 15.04+/-0.07 -2
2013-08-06.1423 15.20+/-0.09 -1
2013-08-07.1328 15.09+/-0.07 -2
2013-09-01.0429 15.06+/-0.07 -2
2013-09-02.0902 15.17+/-0.08 -1
2013-09-16.0260 15.19+/-0.08 -2
2013-09-20.0694 15.29+/-0.10 -1
2013-09-26.0295 15.30+/-0.10 -1
2013-09-28.0437 15.22+/-0.09 -1
2014-03-26.3116 beyond detection
2014-03-28.3265 beyond detection
2014-05-05.4176 beyond detection
2014-05-11.3537 beyond detection
2014-05-21.3330 beyond detection
2014-05-21.3837 beyond detection
2014-05-26.3958 beyond detection
2014-05-26.4072 beyond detection
2014-06-06.1407 beyond detection
2014-06-19.2565 beyond detection
2014-06-19.2804 beyond detection
2014-06-20.0603 beyond detection
2014-06-21.2904 beyond detection
2014-06-24.0763 beyond detection
2014-06-30.0578 beyond detection
2014-06-30.1080 beyond detection
2014-07-01.2635 beyond detection
2014-07-02.0825 beyond detection
2014-07-14.2209 beyond detection
2014-07-26.9858 beyond detection
2014-08-10.1259 beyond detection
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.
