Searches for the progenitor of Nova ASASSN-16ig

ATel #9352; R. K. Saito (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina), D. Minniti (Univ. Andres Bello, Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, Vatican Observatory), M. Catelan (Pontificia Univ. Catolica de Chile, Millennium Institute of Astrophysics), R. Angeloni (Gemini Observatory), L. A. Gutierrez (Univ. Andres Bello, Millennium Institute of Astrophysics)
on 9 Aug 2016; 18:54 UT
Credential Certification: Roberto Saito (saito@astro.ufsc.br)

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Stanek et al. (ATel #9343) recently reported the discovery of a likely classical nova about 4.2 degrees away from the Galactic center. Nova ASASSN-16ig is located at coordinates RA,DEC(J2000)= 18:01:07.735,-26:31:42.01, corresponding to l,b=3.813,-1.741, within the area covered by the VVV Survey (vvvsurvey.org; Minniti et al. 2010, New Astronomy, 15, 433).

Multiband near-IR VVV observations taken in 2010 show no source at the reported target position down to the limit of Ks=17.4 mag. According to the VVV reddening maps (Gonzalez et al., 2012, A&A, 543, 13) assuming the Cardelli et al. (1989, ApJ, 345, 245) extinction law, the mean extinction for a 2 arcmin region around the source position is A_K=0.62 mag, corresponding to A_V=5.3 mag.

A visual inspection on the VVV images shows the presence of three sources within 5 arcsec from the position of Nova ASASSN-16ig which are unlikely to be the progenitor. The VVV coordinates and magnitudes for these objects are listed below.

 
Object                 Dist(arcsec) RA(J2000)    DEC(J2000)      MAG_Z        MAG_Y        MAG_J        MAG_H        MAG_Ks 
VVV J180107.88-263140.2    2.65    18:01:07.88 -26:31:40.20  12.60+/-0.01 12.17+/-0.01 12.15+/-0.01 12.01+/-0.01 11.46+/-0.01 
VVV J180107.74-263145.1    3.07    18:01:07.74 -26:31:45.08  17.19+/-0.06 16.70+/-0.07 16.02+/-0.06 15.52+/-0.08 15.27+/-0.09 
VVV J180107.50-263143.0    3.27    18:01:07.50 -26:31:43.04  17.94+/-0.12 17.15+/-0.10 16.20+/-0.07 15.39+/-0.07 15.04+/-0.07 

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.