ASAS-SN Detection of Strong Flaring Activity from a Known Blazar PKS 1510-089 and a New Blazar Candidate ASASSN-15ha

ATel #7384; K. Z. Stanek (Ohio State), J. L. Prieto (Diego Portales; MAS), T. W.-S. Holoien, C. S. Kochanek, A. B. Danilet, G. Simonian, U. Basu, N. Goss, J. F. Beacom, T. A. Thompson (Ohio State), B. J. Shappee (Hubble Fellow, Carnegie Observatories), D. Bersier (LJMU), J. Brimacombe (Coral Towers Observatory), Subo Dong (KIAA-PKU), E. Falco (CfA), P. R. Wozniak (LANL), D. Szczygiel, G. Pojmanski (Warsaw University Observatory)
on 13 Apr 2015; 18:14 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Transients
Credential Certification: Krzysztof Stanek (stanek.32@osu.edu)

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Flaring blazar PKS 1510-089 (e.g., ATel #6366) is in a field regularly observed by ASAS-SN robotic telescope network. Images obtained on UT 2015-04-13.29 reveal a strong (delta V~1 mag) V-band flare of that object, see this figure for last 30 days of ASAS-SN photometry. Such a strong V-band flare of PKS 1510-089 is unprecedented in ASAS-SN data, going back to March 2012.

New blazar candidate ASASSN-15ha is located at RA,DEC=20:02:04.041, -57:36:44.7 (ASAS-SN position), and it is most likely an optical counterpart to a nearby radio source SUMSS J200204-573646, with unknown redshift. The CRTS archival light curve shows strong optical variability, but the current flare detected by ASAS-SN seems unprecedented in both ASAS-SN and CRTS data, reaching V~16.15 on UT 2015-04-13.37.

We thank LCOGT and its staff for their continued support of ASAS-SN. ASAS-SN is supported in part by Mt. Cuba Astronomical Foundation. For more information about the ASAS-SN project, see the ASAS-SN Homepage.