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X-Ray Flare in the TeV-Detected Blazar S5 0716+714

ATel #16995; Bidzina Kapanadze (Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia; National Astrophysical Observatory, Abastumani, Georgia)
on 26 Jan 2025; 20:01 UT
Credential Certification: Bidzina Kapanadze (bidzina_kapanadze@iliauni.edu.ge)

Subjects: X-ray, Blazar

The TeV-detected BL Lacertae object of unknown redshift S5 0716+714 was observed with the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) onboard Neihl Gehrels Swift Observatory 366 times between 2005 April 2 and 2025 January 23. During this monitoring, the source showed a wide range of the observation-binned 0.3-10 keV count rate between 0.15+/-0.02 cts/s and 3.52+/-0.45 cts/s, as well as strong flares by a factor of 3--6 ten times (see https://www.swift.psu.edu/monitoring/source.php?source=S50716+714). In Atel#16980 (posted 2025 January 15), Lorey et al. reported an increased optical activity of the source and the highest brightness in over 3 years. based on this alert, we triggered Target of Opportunity (TOO) observations with Swift and the first XRT observation performed within this campaign (on January 23) showed the presence of X-ray flaring state in S5 0716+714: the observation-binned 0.3-10 keV count rate amounted to 1.20+/-0.09 cts/s (corresponding to the unabsorbed 0.3-10 keV flux of (2.55+/-0.19)$\times$10^{-11} erg/cm^2/s) which is about 75 per cent higher than the mean rate from all XRT observations of the target. Since the source is in X-ray flaring state and a further brightening may occur, as well as enhanced multiwavelength (MWL) activity is predicted also in other spectral ranges in the framework of one-zone SSC scenario, we strongly encourage intense MWL observations with the space and ground-based instruments. XRT is one of the Swift instruments along with Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) and UV/Optical Telescope (UVOT). It is a JET-X Wolter I type telescope, developed jointly by Pennsylvania State University, Brera Astronomical Observatory (OAB) and University of Leicester. Thanks to the unique characteristics, good photon statistics and low background counts of this instrument (in combination with EEV CCD2 detector), we can investigate a flux variability on different time-scales from minutes to years, obtain high-quality spectra for the majority of the observations, derive different spectral parameters, and study their timing behaviour in the 0.3-10 keV range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The Swift Satellite is operated by Pennsylvania State University.