Fermi LAT Detection of a GeV Flare from the Radio-Loud Narrow-Line Sy1 1H 0323+342
ATel #5344; Bryce Carpenter (Catholic U.), Roopesh Ojha (NASA/GSFC/ORAU) on behalf of the Fermi Large Area Telescope Collaboration
on 30 Aug 2013; 15:46 UT
Credential Certification: Roopesh Ojha (Roopesh.Ojha@gmail.com)
Subjects: Gamma Ray, >GeV, AGN, Blazar
Referred to by ATel #: 5352
The Large Area Telescope (LAT), one of the two instruments on the
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, has observed increasing gamma-ray
flux from a source positionally consistent with 1H 0323+342
(RA=03h24m41.1613s, Dec=+34d10m45.856s, J2000; Beasley et al. 2002,
ApJS, 141, 13) at z= 0.061 (Marcha et al. 1996, MNRAS, 281, 425). This
is the second nearest radio-loud Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxy, a small and
important class of gamma-ray loud AGN (Abdo et al. 2009, ApJ, 707, L142).
Preliminary analysis indicates that on Aug 28th, 2013, the daily
averaged flux (E>100MeV) was (1.0 +/- 0.3) x 10^-6 photons cm^-2 s^-1
(errors are statistical only) which is the highest ever recorded for
this source and is 29 times its average flux in the 2FGL catalog
(2FGL J0324.8+3408; Nolan et al. 2012, ApJS, 199, 31).
Because Fermi operates in an all-sky scanning mode, regular gamma-ray
monitoring of this source will continue. This source is being added to
the "LAT Monitored Sources" and consequently a preliminary estimation
of the daily gamma-ray flux observed by Fermi LAT will be publicly
available (http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/data/access/lat/msl_lc/). We
encourage further multifrequency observations of this source. For this
source the Fermi LAT contact person is Bryce Carpenter
(carpbr01@gmail.com).
The Fermi LAT is a pair conversion telescope designed to cover the
energy band from 20 MeV to greater than 300 GeV. It is the product of
an international collaboration between NASA and DOE in the U.S. and
many scientific institutions across France, Italy, Japan and Sweden.
