Detection of enhanced X-ray flaring activity from Centaurus X-3 by Swift/BAT, MAXI/GSC and Fermi/GBM
ATel #14417; Mangal Hazra (MCC), Sabyasachi Pal (MCC/ICSP), Debasish Saha (MCC), Manoj Mandal (MCC)
on 22 Feb 2021; 13:06 UT
Credential Certification: Sabyasachi Pal (sabya.pal@gmail.com)
Subjects: X-ray, Request for Observations, Neutron Star, Transient, Pulsar
Referred to by ATel #: 14481
Centaurus X-3 (4U 1118-60) is a HMXB pulsar with a pulse period of 4.80461 s (±0.00006), an orbital period of ~2.1 days and a low eccentricity of ≤0.0016 (Tomar et al. 2021, Bildsten et al. 1997).
We report the enhanced X-ray flaring activity from Centaurus X-3 as observed by Swift/BAT, MAXI/GSC and Fermi/GBM. The flux measured by Swift/BAT (15-50 keV) started to increase from MJD 59261 (2021-02-16) and reached to 0.184±0.016 Crab on MJD 59266 (2021-02-21). The flux is also observed to rise in lower energy band by MAXI/GSC (2-20 keV) which increased from MJD 59263.5 (2021-02-18) and reached 0.22±0.01 Crab on MJD 59267.5 (2021-02-22). The corresponding pulsed flux measured by Fermi/GBM (12-25 keV) is 0.107±0.013 keV cm-2 s-1 on MJD 59262 (2021-02-17).
Hardness ratio (10-20 keV/2-4 keV) from the source has decreased from 1.485 (MJD 59263.5) to 0.716 (MJD 59267.5) as measured by MAXI/GSC.
Since the source is still active, multi-wavelength observations are highly encouraged.
This report has made use of MAXI data provided by RIKEN, JAXA and MAXI team.
Light Curve of Centaurus X-3
