MAGIC detects enhanced flux of VHE gamma rays from TXS 0506+056
ATel #12260; Razmik Mirzoyan (Max-Planck-Institute for Physics) on Behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration
on 3 Dec 2018; 22:22 UT
Credential Certification: Razmik Mirzoyan (Razmik.Mirzoyan@mpp.mpg.de)
Subjects: Gamma Ray, >GeV, TeV, VHE, AGN, Blazar
We report an enhanced emission of VHE gamma-rays from the direction of the blazar TXS 0506+056
(05 09 25.96370, +05 41 35.3279 (J2000), [Lani et al., Astron. J., 139, 1695-1712 (2010)]),
located 6 arcmin from the estimated direction of the high energy IceCube neutrino event IceCube-170922A (ATel #10791).
On Dec 3rd 2018 the MAGIC telescopes observed this source for about 2 hours under good weather conditions.
The source was detected at VHE gamma-rays above 90 GeV with a significance larger than 5 sigma. The preliminary analysis yields an estimate of the VHE gamma-ray flux above 90 GeV of ~10-15% of the flux from the Crab Nebula above the same energy threshold, and a spectral index of ~4.
This flux is consistent with the emission level integrated between September 28th 2017 to October 3rd 2017, when the source was discovered at VHE gamma-rays (ATel #10817).
The MAGIC telescopes will continue monitoring the VHE gamma-ray emission of TXS 0506+056. Soft-X-rays and ultraviolet ToO observations with the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have been approved for the next three nights (PI: Cerruti, on behalf of MAGIC), to occur within the time-window 00:00 to 04:00 UTC. NuSTAR ToO observations have also been approved (PI: Satalecka). Multi-wavelength observations (quasi)-simultaneous with MAGIC in this time-window are strongly encouraged.
The MAGIC contact persons for these observations are R. Mirzoyan (Razmik.Mirzoyan@mpp.mpg.de),
E. Bernardini (elisa.bernardini@desy.de), K.Satalecka (konstancja.satalecka@desy.de).
MAGIC is a system of two 17m-diameter Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes located at the Observatory Roque
de los Muchachos on the Canary island La Palma, Spain, and designed to perform gamma-ray astronomy in the energy
range from 50 GeV to greater than 50 TeV.
