Optical and mid-infrared photometry of the luminous red nova 2015 in M101
T. Szalai (U Szeged, Hungary), J. Vinko (Konkoly Obs. / U Szeged), K. Sarneczky (Konkoly Obs.)
Inspired by ATel #7082, #8599 and #8848, we checked the Spitzer Heritage Archive (SHA) in order to find the remnant of the luminous red nova PSN J14021678+5426205 in M101 (ATel #7069, #7070, #7072, #7079, #7082, #7206) on archive mid-infrared images. Although the galaxy M101 has been observed several times since the appearance of the nova, the transient itself was captured only at two epochs, 2015 June 18.82 and July 17.79 UT, in Channel 1 (3.6 micron) of Spitzer/IRAC (PID 11063, PI M. Kasliwal). The remnant of the nova is bright on both images, it appears slightly brighter on the later frame. We determined the following mid-IR fluxes and Vega magnitudes of the source by applying simple aperture photometry on the Spitzer images:
infra-red,optical,nova,transient