AGILE detection of a gamma-ray re-brightening of the blazar PKS 1510-089

ATel #1976; S. Vercellone (INAF-IASF Palermo), F. D'Ammando, G. Pucella, M. Tavani, I. Donnarumma, L. Pacciani (INAF-IASF Roma), A. Bulgarelli, M. Marisaldi, F. Gianotti, M. Trifoglio (INAF-IASF Bologna), C. Pittori, F. Verrecchia (ASDC), A. Chen, A. Giuliani (INAF-IASF Milano), G. Piano, V. Vittorini, E. Costa, M. Feroci, E. Del Monte, 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-OA Cagliari), 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. W. Cattaneo, A. Rappoldi (INFN Pavia), P. Santolamazza, S. Colafrancesco, P. Giommi (ASDC), L. Salotti (ASI).
on 19 Mar 2009; 12:07 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Transients
Credential Certification: Stefano Vercellone (stefano@iasf-milano.inaf.it)

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The Flat Spectrum Radio Quasar PKS 1510-089, shows a new significant re-brightening above 100 MeV following the previous period of intense gamma-ray activity (see Pucella et al., ATel #1968; D'Ammando et al., ATel #1957).

A maximum likelihood analysis of 1AGL J1511-0809 (PKS 1510-089) data obtained between 2009-03-18 05:45 UT and 2009-03-19 05:33 UT for photon energies above 100 MeV yields a detection significance of above 7 sigma with a source flux of about 400 x 10^-8 ph cm^-2 s^-1. This value represents an increase of more than a factor of 3 within 24 hours compared with the gamma-ray flux level detected during the previous three days (between 2009-03-15 06:21 UT and 2009-03-18 05:45 UT), when the average flux was about 120 x 10^-8 ph cm^-2 s^-1.

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.