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

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.