Fermi LAT detection of a GeV flare from PMN J0623-3350 (Fermi J0623-3351)
ATel #12317; T. Venters (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), C. C. Cheung (Naval Research Laboratory) on behalf of the Fermi Large Area Telescope Collaboration
on 21 Dec 2018; 01:55 UT
Credential Certification: Tonia Venters (tonia.m.venters@nasa.gov)
Subjects: Gamma Ray, >GeV, Transient
The Large Area Telescope (LAT), on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, has observed an increasing gamma-ray flux from a source positionally consistent with PMN J0623-3350 (RA = 95.916333 deg, Dec. = -33.837389 deg, J2000; Healey et al. 2007, ApJS, 171, 61) with no known redshift.
Preliminary analysis indicates that on December 19, 2018 the source was in a high state with a gamma-ray flux (E>100MeV) of (0.5 +/- 0.2) x10^-6 ph cm^-2 s^-1, which represents a factor of 5 increase with respect to the last reported LAT detection of this source in 2013 (Atel# 5668). The single power-law photon index for this source was 2.2 +/- 0.2. The source was also detected between December 14-16, 2018 with fluxes (0.4 -- 0.5) x 10^-6 ph cm^-2 s^-1. The gamma-ray source was previously named Fermi J0623-3351, and subsequently reported as the Fermi-LAT catalog source, 2FAV J0623-33.7 (Abdollahi et al. 2017 ApJ 846, 34).
Because Fermi operates in an all-sky scanning mode, regular gamma-ray monitoring of this source will continue. In consideration of the activity of this source we strongly encourage multiwavelength observations. The Fermi LAT contact person for this source is S. Buson (sara.buson at 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.
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