Two new Galactic novae discovered in the VVV disk images
ATel #8972; C. Contreras Pena (Univ. of Hertfordshire), P. W. Lucas (Univ. of Hertfordshire, UK), R. K. Saito (Univ. Fed. de Sergipe, Brazil), D. Minniti (Dept of Physical Sciences, Univ. Andres Bello, Chile; Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, and Vatican Observatory), R. Kurtev (Univ. of Valparaiso, Chile)
on 20 Apr 2016; 11:44 UT
Credential Certification: Roberto Saito (saito@ufs.br)
Subjects: Infra-Red, Nova
We report two novae in the Galactic plane discovered serendipitously during a search for high amplitude variable young stellar objects (Contreras Pena et al. 2016, arXiv:1602.06267) in the VVV Survey data (vvvsurvey.org; Minniti et al. 2010, New Astronomy, 15, 433). These novae are VVV-NOV-018, and VVV-NOV-019 (objects v240 and v514 in Contreras Pena et al. 2016, arXiv:1602.06267, respectively). Both objects are extremely red based on the year 2010 observations: VVV-NOV-018 (v240) has no detectable J-band, H=16.35+/-0.05 and Ks=12.10+/-0.01, and VVV-NOV-019 (v514) has J=17.40+/-0.04, H=14.80+/-0.01 and Ks=13.26+/-0.01.
The coordinates of VVV-NOV-018 are RA, DEC= 16:13:03.44 -51:41:51.91 (J2000). There are no previous entries in the literature for the target position. The sparseness of the light curve does not allow us to determine the outburst date. The observed amplitude is 1.14 mag in the Ks band, and we estimate a total extinction of A_Ks=7.6, equivalent to A_V~67 mag for this object. The available photometry is listed below. Near-IR spectra taken with FIRE at the Magellan Telescope on 10 May 2014 confirm that VVV-NOV-018 is a nova-like object, with Brγ and CI in emission.
The coordinates of VVV-NOV-019 are RA DEC= 14:00:45.37 -61:33:39.95 (J2000). There are no previous entries in the literature for the target position. The available photometry is listed below. The sparse light curve cannot pinpoint the outburst date. The observed amplitude is 1.7 mag in the Ks band, and we estimate a total extinction of A_Ks=2.7, equivalent to A_V~24 mag for this object. Near-IR spectra taken with FIRE at the Magellan Telescope on 11 May 2014 confirm that VVV-NOV-019 is also a nova-like object, with Brγ and HeI in emission.
VVV-NOV-018
MJD(days) Ks(mag) Ks_err(mag) Flag
55261.34 12.09 0.01 -1
55271.39 12.20 0.01 -9
55437.06 11.77 0.01 -1
55439.03 11.74 0.01 -1
55463.01 11.73 0.01 -1
55464.03 11.72 0.01 -1
55781.11 12.66 0.01 -1
55816.04 12.83 0.01 -1
55817.06 12.85 0.01 -1
55829.01 12.86 0.01 -1
55995.25 12.85 0.01 -1
56020.26 12.83 0.01 -1
56439.30 12.70 0.01 -1
56467.28 12.72 0.01 -1
56472.21 12.68 0.01 -1
56473.06 12.72 0.01 -1
56474.01 12.70 0.01 -1
56475.14 12.67 0.01 -1
56485.02 12.59 0.01 -1
56486.01 12.56 0.01 -1
56486.17 12.55 0.01 -1
56486.98 12.57 0.01 -1
56488.01 12.56 0.01 -1
56488.17 12.59 0.01 -1
56490.13 12.63 0.01 -1
56491.99 12.64 0.01 -1
56492.04 12.63 0.01 -1
56492.10 12.62 0.01 -1
56492.18 12.63 0.01 -1
56495.09 12.66 0.01 -1
56495.16 12.67 0.01 -1
56502.13 12.60 0.01 -1
56504.04 12.66 0.01 -1
56504.10 12.58 0.01 -1
VVV-NOV-019
MJD(days) Ks(mag) Ks_err(mag) Flag
55260.30 13.16 0.01 -1
55281.18 13.25 0.01 -1
55337.17 13.54 0.01 -1
55430.03 12.72 0.01 -1
55431.99 12.70 0.01 -1
55778.04 13.98 0.01 -1
55781.03 13.95 0.01 -1
55790.02 14.07 0.01 -1
55794.01 14.05 0.01 -1
55795.00 14.08 0.01 -1
55994.21 14.40 0.02 -1
56014.25 14.35 0.02 -1
56080.22 14.34 0.02 -1
56351.19 14.37 0.03 -1
56362.19 14.31 0.02 -1
56367.15 14.30 0.02 -1
56372.40 14.25 0.02 -1
56374.26 14.29 0.02 -1
56375.18 14.32 0.02 -1
56377.22 14.27 0.02 -1
56407.22 14.28 0.02 -1
56439.15 14.31 0.02 -1
56448.21 14.32 0.02 -1
56453.20 14.35 0.03 -1
56454.18 14.30 0.02 -1
56454.98 14.30 0.02 -1
56459.16 14.30 0.03 -1
56461.00 14.36 0.02 -1
56464.18 14.32 0.03 -1
56465.97 14.34 0.02 -1
56466.17 14.35 0.02 -1
56467.11 14.35 0.02 -1
56468.14 14.38 0.02 -1
56469.09 14.33 0.02 -1
56470.04 14.35 0.02 -1
The VVV data are in the natural VISTA Vegamag system. Photometric flags are described in Saito et al. 2012 (A&A, 537, A107): -1 stellar object, +1 non-stellar object, -2 borderline stellar, -9 saturated stars
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.
