AGILE detection of a persistent and very intense gamma-ray flaring state of the blazar PKS 1510-089
ATel #1968; G. Pucella, F. D'Ammando, M. Tavani, E. Del Monte (INAF-IASF Roma), M. Marisaldi, F. Gianotti, M. Trifoglio, A. Bulgarelli (INAF-IASF Bologna), C. Pittori, F. Verrecchia (ASDC), S. Vercellone (INAF-IASF Palermo), A. Chen, A. Giuliani (INAF-IASF Milano), G. Piano, V. Vittorini, E. Costa, M. Feroci, I. Donnarumma, L. Pacciani, F. Lazzarotto, P. Soffitta, Y. Evangelista, I. Lapshov, M. Rapisarda, A. Argan, A. Trois, G. De Paris (INAF-IASF Roma), G. Di Cocco, C. Labanti, F. Fuschino, M. Galli (INAF-IASF Bologna), P. Caraveo, S. Mereghetti, F. Perotti, M. Fiorini, A. Zambra (INAF-IASF Milano), A. Pellizzoni, M. Pilia (INAF-OACagliari), G. Barbiellini, F. Longo, E. Moretti, E. Vallazza (INFN Trieste), P. Picozza, A. Morselli, S. Sabatini (INFN Roma-2), M. Prest (Universita` dell'Insubria), P. Lipari, D. Zanello (INFN Roma-1), P. Cattaneo (INFN Pavia), P. Santolamazza, S. Colafrancesco, P. Giommi (ASDC), L. Salotti (ASI).
on 13 Mar 2009; 13:00 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Request For Observations
Credential Certification: Marco Tavani (tavani@iasf-roma.inaf.it)
Subjects: Gamma Ray, Request for Observations, AGN, Quasar
The gamma-ray source 1AGL J1511-0809, positionally consistent with the Flat Spectrum Radio Quasar PKS 1510-089, continues to show significant and very intense gamma-ray emission above 100 MeV (see D'Ammando et al., ATel #1957).
A maximum likelihood analysis of the AGILE-GRID data obtained between 2009-03-12 07:00 UT and 2009-03-13 05:00 UT for photon energies above 100 MeV results in a detection significance of above 9 sigma with a source flux in excess of above 400 x 10^-8 ph cm^-2 s^-1. The source positional error box obtained with a 1-day integration is centered at Galactic coordinates l = 351.21 deg, b = 40.12 deg with a radius of about 0.5 degrees.
A sky map above 100 MeV obtained during the March 12-13, 2009 period is available at the web sites http://agile.iasf-roma.inaf.it and http://agile.asdc.asi.it.
We strongly encourage multi-frequency observations of PKS 1510-089 during this remarkable gamma-ray flaring state. The AGILE monitoring of the field containing this source is currently scheduled to continue until 2009-03-25.
