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M. Dennefeld

Publications and source records attributed to M. Dennefeld.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

AT2025agpz in Rubin commissioning data: distinguishing a luminous interacting supernova from nuclear transients in compact galaxies

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time will discover unprecedented numbers of rare, long-lived optical transients, many of which will be too faint or too numerous for comprehensive spectroscopic follow-up. Characterising objects that span the boundaries between established transient classes is therefore essential for improving photometric classification. We present AT2025agpz, a luminous transient at $z=0.147$, discovered around peak by ATLAS but extensively monitored during Rubin commissioning observations of the Euclid Deep Field South. The transient is coincident with the nucleus of a faint dwarf galaxy, exhibits a rest-frame rise time of $77.9\pm1.3$ d, and reaches a peak bolometric luminosity of $6.3\times10^{43}$ erg s$^{-1}$. The exceptional depth and cadence of the Rubin commissioning data, combined with complementary DECam imaging, tightly constrain the explosion epoch and yield an early-time power-law rise of $n=3.33^{+0.33}_{-0.28}$. Follow-up spectroscopy reveals remarkably slow spectral evolution dominated by narrow Balmer emission, while high-resolution X-shooter observations resolve broad electron-scattering wings and multiple H$\alpha$ emission components characteristic of interaction-powered supernovae. Spectral energy distribution modelling indicates a low-mass, moderately star-forming host galaxy. Although AT2025agpz occupies observational parameter space shared by the recently identified Ambiguous Nuclear Transient population, its colour evolution, host environment, and emission-line morphology favour an interaction-powered luminous supernova. More broadly, this event highlights the growing observational overlap between luminous interacting supernovae and nuclear transients, illustrating both the challenges and opportunities for transient classification in the Rubin era.

astro-ph.HE

Early Near-Infrared Excess and Rapid Disk-Corona Evolution in the Tidal Disruption Event 2024aepd

We present multi-wavelength observations of the tidal disruption event (TDE) 2024aepd, spanning primarily the first $\sim$300 days after discovery. The X-ray spectrum is initially dominated by a thermal disk component accompanied by a hard excess. From $\sim$178 days onward, the spectrum becomes power-law dominated and subsequently hardens, indicating the rapid emergence and strengthening of a hot corona. A prominent near-infrared (NIR) excess is detected as early as $\sim40$ days. Its nearly flat power-law spectrum strongly deviates from the Rayleigh-Jeans tail of the UV-optical blackbody. Although a conventional dust-echo origin cannot be completely ruled out, free-free emission from a reprocessing photospheric envelope provides a more plausible explanation. Moreover, the UV-optical-to-NIR break shifts to higher frequencies as the density-profile index remains nearly constant, implying evolving reprocessing conditions within a broadly unchanged density structure. Together with AT2019azh and TDE 2025abcr, TDE 2024aepd is the third TDE reported to exhibit an early-time NIR excess. A larger sample with early-time NIR coverage is needed to determine whether such excesses are common among TDEs.

astro-ph.HE

Light-Curve and Spectral Properties of Type II Supernovae from the ATLAS survey

Type II supernovae (SNe II) are the most common terminal stellar explosions in the Universe. With SNe now being detected within days after explosion, there is growing evidence that the majority of Type II SNe show signs of interaction with a confined, dense cirumstellar material (CSM) in the first few days post explosion. In this work we aim to bridge the gap between single SN studies showing early-time interaction in their spectra, and the statistical studies of early-time SN light curves, which imply the existence of CSM. We present a sample of 68 Type II SNe with both early photometric data, obtained with the ATLAS survey, and spectroscopic data, obtained with the ePESSTO+ collaboration. A subset of the sample is classified based on the presence or absence of narrow spectral features with electron-scattered broadened wings in the early spectra, indicative of interaction with CSM. We characterise the photometric and spectroscopic properties of the sample by measuring rise times to maximum light, peak magnitudes, decline rates and line velocities. Additionally, we measure the ratio of absorption to emission (a/e) of the H alpha P-Cygni profile. Our analysis reveals that SNe II showing early spectroscopic signs of interaction with CSM decline faster and are brighter than those without. However no difference is found in rise times between the two groups. A clear separation is observed in the a/e ratio: SNe with signs of interaction exhibit lower a/e ratios at all epochs compared to those without. Our results highlight that understanding SN II ejecta-CSM interaction requires large, uniform samples of photometric and spectroscopic data, such as the one presented in this work.

astro-ph.SR

AGN in Gaia Alerts: from flares to Changing Look Quasars

The Gaia Alerts system is providing alerts on a variety of objects displaying a significant photometric change detected by the Gaia satellite from one passage to the next one over the same region of the sky. Among the over 22000 alerts published until the end of 2022, around 13 percent concern AGN or quasar candidates. We have embarked on a spectroscopic ground-based follow-up of some of those (including some selected by a different method specifically in galactic nuclei), to establish their true nature, and reveal the various phenomena leading to a change in magnitude of those AGN. The present paper deals with radio-quiet objects, while the radio-loud ones will be described in a companion paper. We confirm, on one hand, the AGN/quasar nature of 64 new candidates alerted by Gaia, and, on the other hand, obtained second-epoch spectra of over 200 known AGN also alerted for large photometric variations. The observed phenomena show a large variety: from Flares to Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs) and a large number of Changing Look Quasars (CLQs, 56 secure ones, plus 23 probable ones), not forgetting some rarer events like SNe, microlensing events or Extreme Coronal Line Emitters. This sample shows that variability is an excellent tool to detect new quasars, especially radio-quiet ones that otherwise would be undetected, and that a significant fraction of variable AGN/quasars, around 10 percent, presents the CLQ phenomenon. Some of the new CLQs are followed-up to monitor further changes and measure time scales.

astro-ph.HE

AT2021uey: A planetary microlensing event outside the Galactic bulge

We report the analysis of a planetary microlensing event AT2021uey. The event was observed outside the Galactic bulge and was alerted by both space- (Gaia) and ground-based (ZTF and ASAS-SN) surveys. From the observed data, we find that the lens system is located at a distance of 1 kpc and comprises an M-dwarf host star of about half a solar mass, orbited by a Jupiter-like planet beyond the snowline. The source star could be a metal-poor giant located in the halo according to the spectral analyses and modelling. Hence, AT2021uey is a unique example of the binary-lens event outside the bulge that is offered by a disc-halo lens-source combination.

astro-ph.EP

Long term monitoring of FRB~20121102 with the Nan\c{c}ay Radio Telescope and multi-wavelength campaigns including INTEGRAL

The origin(s) of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), mysterious radio bursts coming from extragalactic distances, remains unknown. Multi-wavelength observations are arguably the only way to answer this question unambiguously. We attempt to detect hard X-ray/soft gamma-ray counterparts to one of the most active FRB sources, FRB20121102, as well as improve understanding of burst properties in radio through a long-term monitoring campaign using the Nan\c{c}ay Radio Telescope (NRT). Multi-wavelength campaigns involving the International Gamma-ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) satellite, the Nan\c{c}ay Radio Observatory, the optical telescopes at the Observatoire de Haute Provence as well as Arecibo were conducted between 2017 and 2019. In 2017, the telescopes were scheduled to observe simultaneously between Sept 24-29. We specifically used the Fast Response Enhanced CCDs for the optical observations to ensure a high time resolution. In 2019, we changed the strategy to instead conduct ToO observations on INTEGRAL and other available facilities upon positive detection triggers from the NRT. In the 2017 campaign, FRB20121102 was not in its burst activity window. We obtain a 5-sigma optical flux limit of 12 mJy ms using the GASP and a 3-sigma limit from OHP T120cm R-band image of R=22.2 mag of any potential persistent emission not associated to radio bursts. In the 2019 campaign, we have simultaneous INTEGRAL data with 11 radio bursts from the NRT and Arecibo. We obtain a 5-sigma upper limit of 2.7e-7 erg/cm2 in the 25-400 keV energy range for contemporary radio and high energy bursts, and a 5-sigma upper limit of 3.8e-11 erg/cm2 for permanent emission in the 25-100 keV energy range. In addition, we report on the regular observations from NRT between 2016-2020, which accounts for 119 additional radio bursts from FRB20121102. We present an updated fit of the periodic active window of 154+/-2 days.

astro-ph.HE

Multi-purpose InSTRument for Astronomy at Low-resolution: MISTRAL@OHP

MISTRAL is the new Faint Object Spectroscopic Camera mounted at the folded Cassegrain focus of the 1.93m telescope of Haute-Provence Observatory. We describe the design and components of the instrument and give some details about its operation. We emphasise in particular the various observing modes and the performances of the detector. A short description is also given about the working environment. Various types of objects, including stars, nebulae, comets, novae, galaxies have been observed during various test phases to evaluate the performances of the instrument. The instrument covers the range of 4000 to 8000A with the blue setting, or from 6000 to 10000A with the red setting, at an average spectral resolution of 700. Its peak efficiency is about 22% at 6000A. In spectroscopy, a limiting magnitude of 19.5 can be achieved for a point source in one hour with a signal to noise of 3 in the continuum (and better if emission lines are present). In imaging mode, limiting magnitudes of 20-21 can be obtained in 10-20mn (with average seing conditions of 2.5 arcsec at OHP). The instrument is very users-friendly and can be put into operations in less than 15mn (rapid change-over from the other instrument in use) if required by the science (like for Gamma-Rays Bursts). Some first scientific results are described for various types of objects, and in particular for the follow-up of GRBs. While some further improvements are still under way, in particular to ease the switch from blue to red setting and add more grisms or filters, MISTRAL is ready for the follow-up of transients and other variable objects, in the soon-to-come era of e.g. the SVOM satellite and of the Rubin telescope.

astro-ph.IM

The fast transient AT 2023clx in the nearby LINER galaxy NGC 3799 as a tidal disruption of a very low-mass star

We present an extensive analysis of the optical and UV properties of AT2023clx, the closest TDE to date, that occurred in the nucleus of the interacting LINER galaxy, NGC3799 (z=0.01107). After correcting for the host reddening (E(B-V) = 0.179 mag), we find its peak absolute g-band magnitude to be -18.03{+/-}0.07 mag, and its peak bolometric luminosity to be L=(1.57{+/-}0.19)x10^43 erg/s. AT2023clx displays several distinctive features: first, it rose to peak within 10.4{+/-}2.5 days, making it the fastest rising TDE to date. Our SMBH mass estimate of M_BH ~ 10^6 Msol rules out the possibility of an intermediate-mass BH as the reason for the fast rise. Dense spectral follow-up reveals a blue continuum that cools slowly and broad Balmer and HeII lines as well as weak HeI 5876,6678 emission features that are typically seen in TDEs. The early, broad (width ~ 15000 km/s) profile of Ha matches theoretical expectations from an optically thick outflow. A flat Balmer decrement (~ 1.58) suggests that the lines are collisionally excited rather than being produced via photoionisation, in contrast to typical active galactic nuclei. A second distinctive feature, seen for the first time in TDE spectra, is a sharp, narrow emission peak at a rest wavelength of ~ 6353 A. This feature is clearly visible up to 10d post-peak; we attribute it to clumpy material preceding the bulk outflow, which manifests as a high-velocity component of Ha (-9584 km/s). Its third distinctive feature is the rapid cooling during the first ~ 20 days after peak, reflected as a break in the temperature evolution. Combining these findings, we propose a scenario for AT2023clx involving the disruption of a very low-mass star (<=0.1 Msol) with an outflow launched in our line of sight and with disruption properties that led to efficient circularisation and prompt accretion disc formation, observed through a low-density photosphere.

astro-ph.HE

Changing-look NLS1 galaxies, their detection with SVOM, and the case of NGC 1566

We discuss applications of the study of the new and barely explored class of changing-look (CL) narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies and comment on their detection with the space mission SVOM (Space Variable Objects Monitor). We highlight the case of NGC 1566, which is outstanding in many respects, for instance as one of the nearest known CL AGN undergoing exceptional outbursts. Its NLS1 nature is discussed, and we take it as a nearby prototype for systems that could be discovered and studied in the near future, including with SVOM. Finally, we briefly examine the broader implications and applications of CL events in NLS1 galaxies and show that such systems, once discovered in larger numbers, will greatly advance our understanding of the physics of the environment of rapidly growing supermassive black holes. This White Paper is part of a sequence of publications which explore aspects of our understanding of (CL) NLS1 galaxy physics with future missions.

astro-ph.GA

Multiwavelength observations of the extraordinary accretion event AT2021lwx

We present observations from X-ray to mid-infrared wavelengths of the most energetic non-quasar transient ever observed, AT2021lwx. Our data show a single optical brightening by a factor $>100$ to a luminosity of $7\times10^{45}$ erg s$^{-1}$, and a total radiated energy of $1.5\times10^{53}$ erg, both greater than any known optical transient. The decline is smooth and exponential and the ultra-violet - optical spectral energy distribution resembles a black body with temperature $1.2\times10^4$ K. Tentative X-ray detections indicate a secondary mode of emission, while a delayed mid-infrared flare points to the presence of dust surrounding the transient. The spectra are similar to recently discovered optical flares in known active galactic nuclei but lack some characteristic features. The lack of emission for the previous seven years is inconsistent with the short-term, stochastic variability observed in quasars, while the extreme luminosity and long timescale of the transient disfavour the disruption of a single solar-mass star. The luminosity could be generated by the disruption of a much more massive star, but the likelihood of such an event occurring is small. A plausible scenario is the accretion of a giant molecular cloud by a dormant black hole of $10^8 - 10^9$ solar masses. AT2021lwx thus represents an extreme extension of the known scenarios of black hole accretion.

astro-ph.HE

A long life of excess: The interacting transient SN 2017hcc

In this study we present the results of a five-year follow-up campaign of the long-lived type IIn supernova SN 2017hcc, found in a spiral dwarf host of near-solar metallicity. The long rise time (57 $\pm$ 2 days, ATLAS $o$ band) and high luminosity (peaking at $-$20.78 $\pm$ 0.01 mag in the ATLAS $o$ band) point towards an interaction of massive ejecta with massive and dense circumstellar material (CSM). The evolution of SN 2017hcc is slow, both spectroscopically and photometrically, reminiscent of the long-lived type IIn, SN 2010jl. An infrared (IR) excess was apparent soon after the peak, and blueshifts were noticeable in the Balmer lines starting from a few hundred days, but appeared to be fading by around +1200 days. We posit that an IR light echo from pre-existing dust dominates at early times, with some possible condensation of new dust grains occurring at epochs >$\sim$+800 days.

astro-ph.HE

Gaia Photometric Science Alerts

Since July 2014, the Gaia mission has been engaged in a high-spatial-resolution, time-resolved, precise, accurate astrometric, and photometric survey of the entire sky. Aims: We present the Gaia Science Alerts project, which has been in operation since 1 June 2016. We describe the system which has been developed to enable the discovery and publication of transient photometric events as seen by Gaia. Methods: We outline the data handling, timings, and performances, and we describe the transient detection algorithms and filtering procedures needed to manage the high false alarm rate. We identify two classes of events: (1) sources which are new to Gaia and (2) Gaia sources which have undergone a significant brightening or fading. Validation of the Gaia transit astrometry and photometry was performed, followed by testing of the source environment to minimise contamination from Solar System objects, bright stars, and fainter near-neighbours. Results: We show that the Gaia Science Alerts project suffers from very low contamination, that is there are very few false-positives. We find that the external completeness for supernovae, $C_E=0.46$, is dominated by the Gaia scanning law and the requirement of detections from both fields-of-view. Where we have two or more scans the internal completeness is $C_I=0.79$ at 3 arcsec or larger from the centres of galaxies, but it drops closer in, especially within 1 arcsec. Conclusions: The per-transit photometry for Gaia transients is precise to 1 per cent at $G=13$, and 3 per cent at $G=19$. The per-transit astrometry is accurate to 55 milliarcseconds when compared to Gaia DR2. The Gaia Science Alerts project is one of the most homogeneous and productive transient surveys in operation, and it is the only survey which covers the whole sky at high spatial resolution (subarcsecond), including the Galactic plane and bulge.

astro-ph.IM

Progenitor, environment, and modelling of the interacting transient, AT 2016jbu (Gaia16cfr)

We present the bolometric lightcurve, identification and analysis of the progenitor candidate, and preliminary modelling of AT2016jbu (Gaia16cfr). We find a progenitor consistent with a $\sim$22--25~$M_{\odot}$ yellow hypergiant surrounded by a dusty circumstellar shell, in agreement with what has been previously reported. We see evidence for significant photometric variability in the progenitor, as well as strong H$\alpha$ emission consistent with pre-existing circumstellar material. The age of the environment as well as the resolved stellar population surrounding AT2016jbu, support a progenitor age of $>$10 Myr, consistent with a progenitor mass of $\sim$22~$M_{\odot}$. A joint analysis of the velocity evolution of AT2016jbu, and the photospheric radius inferred from the bolometric lightcurve shows the transient is consistent with two successive outbursts/explosions. The first outburst ejected material with velocity $\sim$650$kms^{-1}$, while the second, more energetic event, ejected material at $\sim$4500$kms^{-1}$. Whether the latter is the core-collapse of the progenitor remains uncertain. We place a limit on the ejected $^{56}$Ni mass of $<$0.016$M_{\odot}$. Using the BPASS code, we explore a wide range of possible progenitor systems, and find that the majority of these are in binaries, some of which are undergoing mass transfer or common envelope evolution immediately prior to explosion. Finally, we use the SNEC code to demonstrate that the low-energy explosion within some of these binary systems, together with sufficient CSM, can reproduce the overall morphology of the lightcurve of AT2016jbu.

astro-ph.HE

Photometric and spectroscopic evolution of the interacting transient AT 2016jbu (Gaia16cfr)

We present the results from a high cadence, multi-wavelength observation campaign of AT 2016jbu (aka Gaia16cfr), an interacting transient. This dataset complements the current literature by adding higher cadence as well as extended coverage of the lightcurve evolution and late-time spectroscopic evolution. Photometric coverage reveals that AT 2016jbu underwent significant photometric variability followed by two luminous events, the latter of which reached an absolute magnitude of M$_V\sim$-18.5 mag. This is similar to the transient SN 2009ip whose nature is still debated. Spectra are dominated by narrow emission lines and show a blue continuum during the peak of the second event. AT 2016jbu shows signatures of a complex, non-homogeneous circumstellar material (CSM). We see slowly evolving asymmetric hydrogen line profiles, with velocities of 500km$s^{-1}$ seen in narrow emission features from a slow moving CSM, and up to 10,000km$s^{-1}$ seen in broad absorption from some high velocity material. Late-time spectra ($\sim$+1 year) show a lack of forbidden emission lines expected from a core-collapse supernova and are dominated by strong emission from H, He i and Ca ii. Strong asymmetric emission features, a bumpy lightcurve, and continually evolving spectra suggest an inhibit nebular phase. We compare the evolution of H$\alpha$ among SN 2009ip-like transients and find possible evidence for orientation angle effects. The light-curve evolution of AT 2016jbu suggests similar, but not identical, circumstellar environments to other SN 2009ip-like transients.

astro-ph.SR

Potential asteroid discoveries by the ESA Gaia mission: Results from follow-up observations

Since July 2014, the ESA Gaia mission has been surveying the entire sky down to magnitude 20.7 in the visible. In addition to the millions of stars, thousands of Solar System Objects (SSOs) are observed daily. By comparing their positions to those of known objects, a daily processing pipeline filters known objects from potential discoveries. However, owing to Gaia's specific scanning law designed for stars, potential newly discovered moving objects are characterized by very few observations, acquired over a limited time. This aspect was recognized early in the design of the Gaia data processing. A daily processing pipeline dedicated to these candidate discoveries was set up to release calls for observations to a network of ground-based telescopes. Their aim is to acquire follow-up astrometry and to characterize these objects. From the astrometry measured by Gaia, preliminary orbital solutions are determined, allowing to predict the position of these potentially new discovered objects in the sky accounting for the large parallax between Gaia and the Earth (separated by 0.01 au). A specific task within the Gaia Consortium has been responsible for the distribution of requests for follow-up observations of potential Gaia SSO discoveries. Since late 2016, these calls for observations (called alerts) are published daily via a Web interface, freely available to anyone world-wide. Between November 2016 and July 2020, over 1700 alerts have been published, leading to the successful recovery of more than 200 objects. Among those, six have provisional designation assigned with the Gaia observations, the others being previously known objects with poorly characterized orbits, precluding identification at the time of Gaia observations. There is a clear trend for objects with a high inclination to be unidentified, revealing a clear bias in the current census of SSOs against high inclination populations.

astro-ph.EP

An outflow powers the optical rise of the nearby, fast-evolving tidal disruption event AT2019qiz

At 66 Mpc, AT2019qiz is the closest optical tidal disruption event (TDE) to date, with a luminosity intermediate between the bulk of the population and iPTF16fnl. Its proximity allowed a very early detection and triggering of multiwavelength and spectroscopic follow-up well before maximum light. The velocity dispersion of the host galaxy and fits to the TDE light curve indicate a black hole mass $\approx 10^6$ M$_\odot$, disrupting a star of $\approx 1$ M$_\odot$. Comprehensive UV, optical and X-ray data shows that the early optical emission is dominated by an outflow, with a luminosity evolution $L \propto t^2$, consistent with a photosphere expanding at constant velocity ($\gtrsim 2000$ km s$^{-1}$), and a line-forming region producing initially blueshifted H and He II profiles with $v=3000-10000$ km s$^{-1}$. The fastest optical ejecta approach the velocity inferred from radio detections (modelled in a forthcoming companion paper from K.~D.~Alexander et al.), thus the same outflow may be responsible for both the fast optical rise and the radio emission -- the first time this connection has been observed in a TDE. The light curve rise begins $29 \pm 2$ days before maximum light, peaking when the photosphere reaches the radius where optical photons can escape. The photosphere then undergoes a sudden transition, first cooling at constant radius then contracting at constant temperature. At the same time, the blueshifts disappear from the spectrum and Bowen fluorescence lines (N III) become prominent, implying a source of far-UV photons, while the X-ray light curve peaks at $\approx 10^{41}$ erg s$^{-1}$. Assuming that these X-rays are from prompt accretion, the size and mass of the outflow are consistent with the reprocessing layer needed to explain the large optical to X-ray ratio in this and other optical TDEs, possibly favouring accretion-powered over collision-powered outflow models.

astro-ph.HE

Characterizing Some Gaia Alerts with LAMOST and SDSS

Gaia is regularly producing Alerts on objects where photometric variability has been detected. The physical nature of these objects has often to be determined with the complementary observations from ground-based facilities. We have compared the list of Gaia Alerts (until 20181101) with archival LAMOST and SDSS spectroscopic data. The date of the ground-based observation rarely corresponds to the date of the Alert, but this allows at least the identification of the source if it is persistent, or the host galaxy if the object was only transient like a supernova. A list of Gaia Nuclear Transients from Kostrzewa-Rutkowska et al. (2018) has been included in this search also. We found 26 Gaia Alerts with spectra in LAMOST+SDSS labelled as stars (12 with multi-epoch spectra). A majority of them are CVs. Similarly 206 Gaia Alerts have associated spectra labelled as galaxies (49 with multi-epoch spectra). Those spectra were generally obtained on a date different from the Alert date, are mostly emission-line galaxies, leading to the suspicion that most of the Alerts were due to a SN. As for the GNT list, we found 55 associated spectra labelled as galaxies (13 with multi-epoch spectra). In two galaxies, Gaia17aal and GNTJ170213+2543, was the date of the spectroscopic observation close enough to the Alert date: we find a trace of the SN itself in their LAMOST spectrum, both classified here as a type Ia SN. The GNT sample has a higher proportion of AGNs, suggesting that some of the detected variations are also due to the AGN itself. Similar for Quasars, we found 30 Gaia Alerts but 68 GNT cases have single epoch quasar spectra, while 12 plus 23 have multi-epoch spectra. For ten out of these 35, their multi-epoch spectra show appearance or disappearance of the broad Balmer lines and also variations in the continuum, qualifying them as "Changing Look Quasars".

astro-ph.GA

Full orbital solution for the binary system in the northern Galactic disc microlensing event Gaia16aye

Gaia16aye was a binary microlensing event discovered in the direction towards the northern Galactic disc and was one of the first microlensing events detected and alerted to by the Gaia space mission. Its light curve exhibited five distinct brightening episodes, reaching up to I=12 mag, and it was covered in great detail with almost 25,000 data points gathered by a network of telescopes. We present the photometric and spectroscopic follow-up covering 500 days of the event evolution. We employed a full Keplerian binary orbit microlensing model combined with the motion of Earth and Gaia around the Sun to reproduce the complex light curve. The photometric data allowed us to solve the microlensing event entirely and to derive the complete and unique set of orbital parameters of the binary lensing system. We also report on the detection of the first-ever microlensing space-parallax between the Earth and Gaia located at L2. The properties of the binary system were derived from microlensing parameters, and we found that the system is composed of two main-sequence stars with masses 0.57$\pm$0.05 $M_\odot$ and 0.36$\pm$0.03 $M_\odot$ at 780 pc, with an orbital period of 2.88 years and an eccentricity of 0.30. We also predict the astrometric microlensing signal for this binary lens as it will be seen by Gaia as well as the radial velocity curve for the binary system. Events such as Gaia16aye indicate the potential for the microlensing method of probing the mass function of dark objects, including black holes, in directions other than that of the Galactic bulge. This case also emphasises the importance of long-term time-domain coordinated observations that can be made with a network of heterogeneous telescopes.

astro-ph.SR