Unraveling the Infrared Transient VVV-WIT-06: The Case for the Origin as a Classical Nova



: D.P.K. Banerjee, E.Y. Hsiao, T. Diamond, L. Galbany, N. Morrell N, D. Minniti, H. Kuncarayakti, S. Mattila, J. Harmanen

Publisher: IOP PUBLISHING LTD

: 2018

: Astrophysical Journal

: ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL

: ASTROPHYS J

: ARTN 99

: 867

: 2

: 6

: 0004-637X

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aae5d3

: https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.06801


The enigmatic near-infrared transient VVV-WIT-06 underwent a large-amplitude eruption of unclear origin in 2013 July. Based on its light curve properties and late-time post-outburst spectra, various possibilities have been proposed in the literature for the origin of the object, namely a Type I supernova, a classical nova (CN), or a violent stellar merger event. We show that, of these possibilities, an origin in a CN outburst convincingly explains the observed properties of VVV-WIT-06. We estimate that the absolute K-band magnitude of the nova at maximum was M-k = -8.2 +/- 0.5, its distance d = 13.35 +/- 2.18 kpc, and the extinction A(v) = 15.0 +/- 0.55 mag.



Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 20:19