GCN Circular 44089
Subject
EP260321a: Continued brightening from Kinder follow-up of the emerging supernova candidate
Event
Date
2026-03-23T15:36:09Z (6 days ago)
From
Janet Chen at National Central University <janetstars@gmail.com>
Via
Web form
A. Sankar.K, A. Aryan, T.-W. Chen, W.-J. Hou, C.-S. Lin (all NCU), S. Yang (HNAS), A. K. H. Kong (NTHU), S. J. Smartt, J. Gillanders (both Oxford), M. Nicholl (QUB), T. Moriya (NAOJ), M. Saillenfest (LTE, Paris Observatory), Y.-N. Lee (NTNU), M.-H. Lee, A. Dutta, Y.-H. Lee, Y.-C. Pan, C.-C. Ngeow, C.-H. Lai, H.-C. Lin, H.-Y. Hsiao, J.-K. Guo (all NCU), Y. J. Yang (NYUAD), Z. N. Wang, D. C. Qiang, L. L. Fan (all HNAS), H.-W. Lin (UMich), H. F. Stevance, S. Srivastav, L. Rhodes (all Oxford), M. Fulton, T. Moore, K. W. Smith, C. Angus, A. Aamer (all QUB), A. Schultz M. Huber, K. Chambers (all IfA, Hawaii) report:
We obtained further optical observations of the field of the fast X-ray transient EP260321a (Huang et al., GCN 44068, 44075) using the 1m LOT at Lulin Observatory in Taiwan as part of the Kinder collaboration (Chen et al. 2025, ApJ, 983, 86; Aryan et al. 2025, ApJS, 281, 20).
The new LOT observations started at UTC 12:42 on March 23rd 2026 (MJD 61122.5295), corresponding to 48.20 hr after the EP-WXT trigger. At the refined EP/FXT position, coincident with the blue variable source first noted by Lee et al. (GCN 44070) and further discussed by Tanvir et al. (GCN 44082), Ahumada et al. (GCN 44084), and Liu et al. (GCN 44087), we detect the source in the g band. We used the AutoPhOT (Brennan & Fraser, 2022, A&A, 667, A62) to perform PSF photometry for this object:
Telescope | Filter | MJD (start) | t-t0 (hr) | Exposure (s) | Magnitude | Seeing | Airmass
LOT | g | 61122.5295 | 48.20 | 300 * 1 | 18.30 +/- 0.03 | 1".02 | 1.14
The presented magnitude is calibrated using field stars from the ATLAS-RefCat2 catalog from MAST (Tonry et al. 2018, ApJ, 867, 105), is reported in the AB system, and is not corrected for the expected Galactic foreground extinction of A_g = 0.08 mag in the direction of the transient (Schlafly & Finkbeiner 2011).
Compared with our previous LOT measurement of g = 18.77 +/- 0.04 mag at 23.99 hr post-trigger (Aryan et al., GCN 44081), the source has brightened by approximately 0.47 mag. This is also consistent with, and extends, the re-brightening trend reported by Liu et al. (GCN 44087), indicating that the source is still rising.
Our time resolved monitoring of this source during the six hours after the FXT detection with the LOT (Lee et al., GCN 44070, Aryan et al., GCN 44081) indicates a sharp decline of 0.3 mag within the first 2 hours followed by a continued, monotonic rise, now at g = 18.3 at t-t0 = 48.2 hr. With the spectroscopic observation from Tanvir et al. (GCN 44082) indicating that the source may be associated the z = 0.0343, we propose the LOT optical lightcurve could be explained by the shock cooling and a rise from a supernovae associated with the blue point like source visible in the archive images, also proposed by Liu et al. (GCN 44087). At M_g ~ -17.7, this is now at supernova-like luminosities, which would be consistent with Huang et al. (GCN 44075) interpretaiton of the EP260321a as shock breakout signature.
The luminosity of the blue progenitor source would be very large for a single star, lying between M_r = -15 to -16. Elevated, high luminosity has been seen in LBV type precursors (e.g. SN1961V, Kochanek et al. 2011, ApJ 737, 76; and other LBV precursors, Smith et al. 2010, AJ 139, 1451), but this case would be extreme. We note that long term Pan-STARRS monitoring shows this source to be variable over 7 years, with flux variations in the w-band difference imaging around 21 < w < 22. Further spectroscopic observations are required to determine if the transient shows high expansion velocities and lines that definitively place it in the z=0.0343 host.