Observations of the First Electromagnetic Counterpart to a Gravitational-wave Source by the TOROS Collaboration Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • 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. We detected highly significant dimming in the light curves of the counterpart ( m{Delta }}g=0.17pm 0.03$?> mag, m{Delta }}r=0.14pm 0.02$?> mag, m{Delta }}i=0.10pm 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 1.5 m 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.

published proceedings

  • ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS

altmetric score

  • 52.83

author list (cited authors)

  • Diaz, M. C., Macri, L. M., Garcia Lambas, D., Mendes de Oliveira, C., Nilo Castellon, J. L., Ribeiro, T., ... Zadrozny, A.

citation count

  • 111

complete list of authors

  • Diaz, MC||Macri, LM||Garcia Lambas, D||Mendes de Oliveira, C||Nilo Castellon, JL||Ribeiro, T||Sanchez, B||Schoenell, W||Abramo, LR||Akras, S||Alcaniz, JS||Artola, R||Beroiz, M||Bonoli, S||Cabral, J||Camuccio, R||Castillo, M||Chavushyan, V||Coelho, P||Colazo, C||Costa-Duarte, MV||Cuevas Larenas, H||Depoy, DL||Dominguez Romero, M||Dultzin, D||Fernandez, D||Garcia, J||Girardini, C||Goncalves, DR||Goncalves, TS||Gurovich, S||Jimenez-Teja, Y||Kanaan, A||Lares, M||Lopes de Oliveira, R||Lopez-Cruz, O||Marshall, JL||Melia, R||Molino, A||Padilla, N||Penuela, T||Placco, VM||Quinones, C||Ramirez Rivera, A||Renzi, V||Riguccini, L||Rios-Lopez, E||Rodriguez, H||Sampedro, L||Schneiter, M||Sodre, L||Starck, M||Torres-Flores, S||Tornatore, M||Zadrozny, A

publication date

  • October 2017