Recent radio brightening of the black-hole X-ray binary GX 339-4 as observed with MeerKAT
ATel #16421; Miriam M Nyamai (SARAO), Lilia Tremou (NRAO), Rob Fender (Oxford) on behalf of the X-KAT team et. al.
on 26 Jan 2024; 18:15 UT
Credential Certification: Evangelia Tremou (etremou@nrao.edu)
Subjects: Radio, Binary, Black Hole, Transient
The low-mass X-ray binary GX 339-4 is observed once every week with the MeerKAT telescope as part of the X-KAT programme (PI Fender), following on from the ThunderKAT programme. All the observations are taken using the L band observing frequency centered at 1.28 GHz and the total time on target is 10 minutes. The system is known to show recurring outbursts separated by one or two years. During the last few months, GX 339-4 has steadily brightened in the radio band, from a baseline of around 5 mJy in November, 2023. This radio brightening is still ongoing: the latest epoch on 2024-01-22 04:36 UTC shows a point source with a flux density of 11.5 mJy.
Considering this current outburst and ongoing radio monitoring with the MeerKAT, we therefore encourage multi-wavelength observations.
We thank the staff at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) for scheduling and carrying out these observations. The MeerKAT telescope is operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), which is a facility of the National Research Foundation, an agency of the Department of Science and Innovation.
