SuperAGILE detects an X-ray burst from a position consistent with IGR J17473-2721
ATel #1445; E. Del Monte, Y. Evangelista, M. Feroci, E. Costa, I. Donnarumma, I. Lapshov, F. Lazzarotto, L. Pacciani, M. Rapisarda, P. Soffitta, A. Argan, A. Trois , M. Tavani, G. Pucella, F. D'Ammando, V. Vittorini (INAF/IASF Roma), A. Chen, S. Vercellone, A. Giuliani, S. Mereghetti, A. Pellizzoni, F. Perotti, F. Fornari, M. Fiorini, P. Caraveo (INAF/IASF Milano), A. Bulgarelli, F. Gianotti, M. Trifoglio, G. Di Cocco, C. Labanti, F. Fuschino, M. Marisaldi, M. Galli, (INAF/IASF Bologna), G. Barbiellini, F. Longo, E. Vallazza (INFN Trieste), P. Picozza, A. Morselli (INFN Roma-2), M. Prest (Universita` dell'Insubria), P. Lipari, D. Zanello (INFN Roma-1), P. Cattaneo (INFN Pavia) and C Pittori, F. Verrecchia, B. Preger, P. Giommi (ASDC) and L. Salotti (ASI)
on 27 Mar 2008; 13:41 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Transients
Credential Certification: Marco Feroci (marco.feroci@iasf-roma.inaf.it)
Subjects: X-ray, Binary, Neutron Star, Transient
During the AGILE pointing at the Galactic Center region
SuperAGILE detected a burst from the sky position
RA=266.842, Dec=-27.339 (error radius 3 arcmin).
This position lies approximately 1.1 arcmin from the
position of the source IGR J17473-2721 (Grebenev et al.,
ATel #467) and approximately 1 arcmin from the proposed
counterpart detected by Swift/XRT (Kennea et al., ATel #500)
and Chandra (Juett et al., ATel #521).
The burst was detected on 26 March 2008, 23:19:40 UT, lasted
approximately 40 s and it was significantly detected only
in the energy range 17-25 keV. The average flux of the event
was about 2.5 Crab.
If the identification with IGR J17473-2721 is correct, assuming
a distance of 8.5 kpc, the observed average flux corresponds to
approximately 0.9 x 10^38 erg/s (17-25 keV), consistent with
an Eddington limited flux for a neutron star mass.
Considering the intensity, the temporal and spectral properties
of the event as well as the spatial coincidence with the source
IGR J17473-2721 near the Galactic Center, we propose that the burst
observed by SuperAGILE was indeed a Type I X-ray burst, and suggest
that IGR J17473-2721 is an X-ray burster.