XTE J2012+381: Swift confirmation of new outburst

ATel #15827; J. A. Kennea (PSU)
on 27 Dec 2022; 05:30 UT
Credential Certification: Jamie A. Kennea (kennea@astro.psu.edu)

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MAXI reported a new outburst of XTE J2012+381 (ATEL #15826), At 18:38UT on December 26th, 2022, Swift performed a target of opportunity observation of the position of XTE J2012+381. We find a highly piled-up source in the 1ks PC mode observation at the following coordinates: RA/Dec(J2000) = 303.15765, 38.18403,

RA(J2000) = 20h 12m 37.84s,
Dec(J2000) = +38° 11m 02.5s,

with an error radius 2.2 arc-seconds (90% confidence). This source is 1.3 arcseconds from the optical counterpart of XTE J2012+381 (Hynes et al, 1998), confirming that this X-ray source in indeed a new outburst of XTE J2012+381. The PC mode count rate, corrected for pile-up and hot columns is 43.6 +/- 1.4, which equates to a flux of 1.8 x 10^-9 erg/s/cm^2 (0.3 - 10 keV).

This looks to be the first major outburst of XTE J2012+381 since its discovery in 1998.