Program: GN-2021B-FT-208

Title:Red nova in the Galactic Bulge
PI:Carl Melis
Co-I(s): Tomasz Kaminski, Romuald Tylenda

Abstract

We request KLM photometry at NIRI of a dimming remnant of a stellar merger known as BLG-360 which erupted as a red nova in 2002. These data will complement ongoing SOFIA photometry in the MIR and FIR. NIRI data will be used to reconstruc the spectral energy distibution of the object and to calculate the remnant basis properties (dust mass, size, or temerature of circumstellar dust). This will help us understand what happens after two-nongenerate stars merge. BLG-360 is currently the least studied of the five known Galactic stellar merger products.