AGILE detection of a gamma-ray source coincident with Blazar 3C 454.3
ATel #1278; A. Chen, S. Vercellone, A. Giuliani, S. Mereghetti, A. Pellizzoni, F. Perotti, F. Fornari, M. Fiorini, P. Caraveo, A. Zambra (INAF/IASF Milano), A. Bulgarelli, F. Gianotti, M. Trifoglio, G. Di Cocco, C. Labanti, F. Fuschino, M. Marisaldi, M. Galli, (INAF/IASF Bologna), M. Tavani, G. Pucella, F. D'Ammando, V. Vittorini, E. Costa, M. Feroci, I. Donnarumma, L. Pacciani, E. Del Monte, F. Lazzarotto, P. Soffitta, Y. Evangelista, I. Lapshov, M. Rapisarda, A. Argan, A. Trois , G. De Paris (INAF/IASF Roma), G. Barbiellini, F. Longo (INFN Trieste), P. Picozza, A. Morselli (INFN Roma-2), M. Prest, E. Vallazza (Universita` dell'Insubria), P. Lipari, D. Zanello (INFN Roma-1), F. Mauri (INFN Pavia) and P. Giommi, C. Pittori, L. A. Antonelli, D. Gasparrini, S. Cutini, F. Verrecchia (ASDC) and L. Salotti (ASI)
on 14 Nov 2007; 10:07 UT
Credential Certification: Andrew Chen (chen@iasf-milano.inaf.it)
Subjects: Gamma Ray, >GeV, AGN, Quasar
The AGILE satellite, currently in its Science Verification Phase, during the Observing Block that started on 2007-11-02 12:00 UT, detected significant gamma-ray emission from a source coincident with the blazar 3C 454.3.
A preliminary maximum likelihood analysis of the AGILE-GRID (Gamma-Ray Imaging Detector) data obtained between 2007-11-02 13:50 UT and 2007-11-12 17:01 UT for photon energies above 100 MeV results in a detection significance of about 5.4 sigma, slightly over our current, conservatively estimated detection threshold.
Considering that the in-flight calibration of the GRID is still ongoing, and despite the fact that the source was more than 40 degrees off-axis, a region in the field of view whose calibration is still highly uncertain, we encourage multi-frequency observations of the field of the gamma-ray source detected by AGILE. The AGILE pointing of the Galactic plane region that includes this gamma-ray source will continue until 2007-12-01 12:00 UT.
