Swift J023017.0+283603: A possible tidal disruption event

ATel #15454; P. A. Evans (U. Leicester), S. Campana (INAF-OABrera), K. L. Page (U. Leicester)
on 22 Jun 2022; 14:55 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Transients
Credential Certification: Phil Evans (pae9@star.le.ac.uk)

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Swift-XRT has detected a new X-ray transient, Swift J023017.0+283603, in a 1.3 ks observation beginning at 2022-06-22 09:19:34 UT. The transient is located at: RA, Dec = 37.5711, 28.6011 degrees which is equivalent to:

RA (J2000): 02h 30m 17.06s
Dec(J2000): +28d 36m 03.8s

with an uncertainty of 4.7" (radius, 90% confidence).

The source count-rate is 2.7 (+0.6, -0.5) x 10^-2 ct s^-1, whereas the historical upper limit from earlier XRT observations is 1.5 x 10^-3 ct/sec (all values over 0.3-10 keV).

This position is 1.1" from 2MASX J02301709+2836050, classified by SIMBAD as a galaxy. The X-ray data contain only 27 counts, from which we cannot obtain a reliable spectral fit, however, all of the events appear to be below 1 keV.

Given the proximity to a galaxy and the soft spectrum, this is a candidate Tidal Disruption Event.

Follow-up observations are strongly encouraged.

This transient was found as part of a new system to automatically check for serendipitous transients in Swift-XRT data.