GCN Circular 21529
Subject
LIGO/Virgo G298048: Potential optical counterpart discovered by Swope telescope
Event
Date
2017-08-18T01:05:23Z (8 years ago)
From
Edo Berger at Harvard U <eberger@cfa.harvard.edu>
D. A. Coulter, C. D. Kilpatrick, M. R. Siebert, R. J. Foley (UCSC), B. J.
Shappee, M. R. Drout, J. S. Simon, A. L. Piro (Carnegie), and A. Rest (STScI)
report on behalf of the One-Meter Two-Hemisphere (1M2H) collaboration:
On 2017 Aug 18 UT in the process of observing several galaxies coincident
with the highest-likelihood localization region for the LIGO/Virgo G298048
trigger (LVC GCNs 21509, 21513) with the 1-m Swope telescope at Las
Campanas Observatory, we detect a source 5.3�� E and 8.8�� N of NGC 4993, an
S0 galaxy in the NGC 4993 / ESO 508-G018 group at a distance of ~40 Mpc
(Tully-Fisher distance to the group; Freedman et al., ApJ, 553, 47, 2001).
The object is:
SSS17a 13:09:48.089 -23:22:53.35
and had a brightness of i = 16.0 mag.
We have checked the minor planet center and previous SN discoveries, and
have found no cross-matches. This source could possibly be optical
emission associated with the LIGO/Virgo G298048 trigger.
Spectroscopic observations are under way. Additional photometry has been
obtained and is being analyzed. Additional observations are encouraged.
The contact person for this circular is Ryan Foley (foley@ucsc.edu).
[GCN OPS NOTE(28sep17): Per a combination of requests and editorial
policy: (1) AR was added to the author list. (2) The contact-name sentence
was added. The editor notes that RF was having sign-up problems with the
LV-EM Forum and E.Berger offered to submit in his place since
publication latency was important. (3) And the EB signature block
was removed.]