Discovery of a new HMXB in the Magellanic Bridge
ATel #1882; M. J.Coe(Southampton), V. A. McBride(Southampton), A. J. B. ird (Southampton), R. H.D. Corbet (UMBC/NASA GSFC) and other members of the INTEGRAL SMC HMXB Key Programme Team
on 26 Dec 2008; 22:21 UT
Credential Certification: Malcolm Coe (mjcoe@soton.ac.uk)
Subjects: X-ray, Neutron Star, Transient
Several combined observations of the region of the SMC and Magellanic Bridge using INTEGRAL during December 2008 reveal a new X-ray source in the Bridge designated IGR J015712-7259. Follow-up observations using Swift localised the source to a position of RA 01 57 16.4, Dec -72 58 33 (2000) with an error of 3.7 arcsec. These follow-up observations, together with TOO observations by RXTE on 24 Dec 2008, both detected strong pulsations at a period of 11.6s. There is also a USNO star with a magnitude of 15.4 in the R1 band within the Swift error circle. All these results strongly suggest that we have identified a new High Mass X-ray Binary neutron star system in the Magellanic Bridge.
If it is a HMXB, it will be only the second such system identified in the Bridge - the other suspected HMXB being RX J0209.6-7427 (Kahabka 2000 A&A 354, 999).
