SRG/ART-XC detection of the new X-ray transient near the Galactic Center - SRGA J174800.5-280826

ATel #17966; A. Semena(1), I. Mereminskiy(1), A. Lutovinov(1), S. Molkov(1), A. Tkachenko(1) (1:IKI RAS, Moscow)
on 14 Aug 2026; 19:29 UT
Credential Certification: Andrey Semena (san@iki.rssi.ru)

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During the observations of the Galactic Center region on Aug. 13, 2026, the Mikhail Pavlinsky ART-XC telescope onboard the SRG observatory detected a new bright X-ray transient at the position of RA, Dec = 267.0020, -28.1407 (l,b = 0.9519, -0.0357), with estimated 90% containment radius of 10". The source flux is 3.1(+/-0.1)x10^-11 erg/cm2/s in the 4-12 keV band, corresponding to luminosity of about 2x10^35 erg/s for a fiducial 8 kpc distance. The source brightened by a factor of 2 in consecutive scans separated by nearly 5 hours.

No bright X-ray sources are present in archival catalogs of other X-ray missions, despite extensive coverage. We also note that the position of the transient is 1.5' off the position of IGR J17479-2807 - unidentified persistent hard X-ray source (see Bird et al., 2016, Krivonos et al., 2022). Given the typical size of ISGRI localization region (several arcmin) these sources could be related.

We are encouraging multiwavelength observations of this new source in order to establish its nature.

The Mikhail Pavlinsky ART-XC telescope is the X-ray telescope on board the SRG observatory which was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on 13 July 2019 by the Proton rocket.