Observations of the first electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave source by the TOROS collaboration

2017/10/16 by M. C. Díaz, L. M. Macri, D. Garcia Lambas +52 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.HE #astro-ph.SR

paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aa9060

Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters

arxiv created 2017/10/16 · arxiv updated 2017/10/25

Abstract

We present the results of prompt optical follow-up of the electromagnetic counterpart of the gravitational-wave event GW170817 by the Transient Optical Robotic Observatory of the South Collaboration (TOROS). We detected highly significant dimming in the light curves of the counterpart (Delta g=0.17+-0.03 mag, Delta r=0.14+-0.02 mag, Delta i=0.10 +- 0.03 mag) over the course of only 80 minutes of observations obtained ~35 hr after the trigger with the T80-South telescope. A second epoch of observations, obtained ~59 hr after the event with the EABA 1.5m telescope, confirms the fast fading nature of the transient. The observed colors of the counterpart suggest that this event was a "blue kilonova" relatively free of lanthanides.

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