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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.