MASTER optical detection of the first LIGO/Virgo neutron stars merging GW170817

TL;DR

This paper reports the first optical detection of a kilonova from a neutron star merger associated with GW170817, using the MASTER telescopes to capture the event in multiple filters.

Contribution

It presents the independent optical detection and photometry of the kilonova from GW170817, demonstrating the capability of the MASTER network for such observations.

Findings

First optical image of the kilonova in NGC 4993 after GW170817

Photometry of the kilonova in multiple filters (white, B, V, R)

Luminosity comparable to other proposed kilonovae from GRBs

Abstract

Following the reported discovery of the gravitational-wave pulse GW170817/ G298048 by three LIGO/Virgo antennae (Abbott et al., 2017a), the MASTER Global Robotic Net telescopes obtained the first image of the NGC 4993 galaxy after the NS+NS merging. The optical transient MASTER OTJ130948.10-232253.3/SSS17a was later found, which appears to be a kilonova resulting from a merger of two neutron stars. In this paper we report the independent detection and photometry of the kilonova made in white light and in B, V, and R filters. We note that luminosity of the discovered kilonova NGC 4993 is very close to another possible kilonova proposed early GRB 130603 and GRB 080503.