A new candidate TDE from XMM-Newton slew data
ATel #11394; A. M. Read (Leicester), R. Saxton (ESAC), S. Komossa (MPIfR), K. D. Alexander (Harvard), W. P.Maksym (Harvard)
on 10 Mar 2018; 09:26 UT
Credential Certification: Richard Saxton (richard.saxton@sciops.esa.int)
Subjects: X-ray, Tidal Disruption Event
Referred to by ATel #: 11395
We report a new X-ray source, XMMSL2 J140446.9-251135, found in an
XMM-Newton slew of 15/2/2018 with a count rate of 3.4 c/s (0.2-2 keV) in the EPIC-pn
camera, medium filter.
A crude spectral fit gives a power-law of slope 4.8+/-1.2 or black-body with
kT=90+/-30 eV absorbed by the Galactic column.
The absorbed flux for the black-body model is 4.6+/-1.5 E-12 ergs/s/cm2
with an unabsorbed flux of 1.2+/-0.4 E-11 ergs/s/cm2.
This is at least a
factor 15 higher than an upper limit from the ROSAT all-sky survey.
The source position is RA:211.1955 DEC:-25.1931 with an error circle of
8 arcseconds (1-sigma).
A follow-up by Swift-XRT on 28/2/2018 refined the coordinates to
RA:211.1939 DEC: -25.1950 (error radius=3.6", 90% confidence)
consistent with the galaxy
2MASX 14044671-2511433, which appears to be a normal galaxy from its
WISE colours. The Swift count rate was 0.087+/-0.006 c/s indicating a reduction
in flux of a factor ~2, with a very soft spectrum of power-law of slope
6.0+/-0.3 or black-body with kT=70.3+/-6.0 eV.
We interpret this as a possible tidal disruption event.
Additional X-ray, optical, and radio observations have been triggered.
