The likely progenitor of Nova ASASSN-16ma
ATel #9680; 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)
on 27 Oct 2016; 16:48 UT
Credential Certification: Roberto Saito (saito@astro.ufsc.br)
Subjects: Infra-Red, Nova
Referred to by ATel #: 9683
Stanek et al. (ATel #9669) recently reported on the rising of a likely Galactic Nova in the Milky Way bulge, confirmed by spectroscopic observations by the ARAS Group (Luckas 2016, ATel #9678). Nova ASASSN-16ma is located at coordinates RA,DEC (J2000) = 18:20:52.12, -28:22:13.52, corresponding to l,b = 4.288, -6.468, 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 the presence of a faint source 0.78 arcsec apart from the reported target position. 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=0.13 mag, corresponding to A_V=1.1 mag.
The VVV coordinates and magnitudes for the likely progenitor of Nova ASASSN-16ma are listed below. Photometric flags in the VVV photometry as well as visual inspection of the images show the object may be a blend of two even fainter sources.
VVV ID: VVV J182052.14-282212.8
RA,DEC(J2000) = 18:20:52.141 -28:22:12.79
L,B = 4.293,-6.461
Z = 18.80+/-0.18 +1
Y = 18.52+/-0.19 +1
J = 18.07+/-0.15 +1
H = 17.79+/-0.21 +1
Ks = 17.57+/-0.28 -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 corresponds to a stellar object, whereas +1 to a non-stellar source.
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.
