TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20382 SUBJECT: SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G268556: ATLAS17aeu - an unusual transient within the skymap DATE: 17/01/06 19:09:41 GMT FROM: S. J. Smartt at Queens U Belfast J. Tonry, L. Denneau, A. Heinze, B. Stalder, H. Weiland (IfA), C. W. Stubbs (Harvard), K. W. Smith, S. J. Smartt, (QUB), D. R. Young (QUB), A. Rest (STScI), K. C. Chambers (IfA), M. Coughlin (Harvard), M. E. Huber (IfA), D. E. Wright (QUB), H. Flewelling, E. A. Magnier, A. S. B. Schultz, C. Waters, R. J. Wainscoat (IfA) Following on from GCN 20377, we have processed the ATLAS data beginning at 57758.296 (2016-01-05.296 UT) which started at a pointing centre of RA=80, DEC=-30, and moved north and east across the northern sky lobe to RA=170,80. We find one transient that appears to be new (and recovered old ones). This object has some unusual characteristics that warrant further attention ATLAS17aeu 09:13:13.89 +61:05:33.6 (138.30789 +61.09267) J2000 The position is within the inner 16% probability contour. This object is not spatially coincident with any star or host galaxy. The lightcurve faded by 0.85 mag over 1.176hrs MJD c mag err 57758.4129676 18.05 0.09 57758.4144595 18.18 0.1 57758.4267173 18.22 0.1 57758.4419066 18.58 0.13 57758.4469072 18.45 0.11 57758.4479226 18.34 0.11 57758.454986 18.39 0.11 57758.4619614 18.90 0.18 (the cyan mag is effectively an average of g and r). The object has now fallen below the detection limit (orange filter; o ~ 19) on the night of 57759. Such a fast fade is unusual if the object is extragalactic. The obvious immediate explanations for this object are 1) It is not a real astrophysical transient. We consider this unlikely. 2) The photometric errors are under-estimated and it is flat. We consider this unlikely, and the errors to be reliable. 3) It is a Galactic CV. But the fading is too fast for typical CVs. 4) It is an M-dwarf flare. But the fading is slow for a typical M-dwarf (which are usually between 2 and >5 mags per hour) We note that there is no faint point source in the Pan-STARRS 3Pi stacked sky (Chambers et al. 2017, arXiv:1612.05560, and http://panstarrs.stsci.edu). There is no counterpart in the MPC, Vizier, WISE, various CV and stellar catalogues. The object is 23 arcsec from the galaxy SDSS J091312.36+610554.2 which has a spectroscopic redshift of z = 0.199 +/- 0.00004. This implies a luminosity distance of 990 Mpc (for Ho=69). If ATLAS17aeu is related, it would be at a projected distance of 75kpc from the Galaxy. This luminosity distance is consistent with the BAYESTAR 3D volume rendering (Singer et al. 2016, ApJ 829, L1) of G268556 which suggests a 10-90 percentile probability of 520-1010 Mpc in this direction. If it were associated with the z = 0.199 +/- 0.00004 galaxy, then it would be unusually luminous (M_g ~ -21.5). While a Galactic origin is still the most probable, it remains to be confirmed. We encourage a search of any contemporaneous data taken at the same time we detected this object and deep imaging of the position to recover any host object (star or galaxy).