Extended Data Fig. 1: Spectral series of AT2017gfo 1.4-5.4 days after the merger.

Spectra are from the VLT/X-shooter spectrograph (grey), with best fit shown with a dashed black line, and the blackbody-only component indicated with a red dotted line and deviations from the blackbody with pink fill. Grey-shaded regions were not included in the fits. Darker shaded bars indicate telluric regions; light grey indicates overlapping noisy regions between the UVB, VIS and NIR arms of the spectrograph.