Swift/BAT detects flaring activity from 3C 454.3
ATel #2330; H. A. Krimm (CRESST/GSFC/USRA), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), W. Baumgartner (CRESST/GSFC/UMBC), J. Cummings (CRESST/GSFC/UMBC), E. Fenimore (LANL), N. Gehrels (GSFC), M. Kadler (Remeis-Observatory/ECAP/CRESST/USRA), C. B. Markwardt (CRESST/GSFC/UMD), D. Palmer (LANL), T. Sakamoto (CRESTT/GSFC/UMBC), G. Skinner (CRESST/GSFC/UMD), M. Stamatikos (OSU/GSFC), J. Tueller (GSFC), T. Ukwatta (GSFC/GWU)
on 4 Dec 2009; 20:12 UT
Credential Certification: Hans A. Krimm (Hans.Krimm@nasa.gov)
Subjects: X-ray, AGN, Transient
The Swift/BAT hard X-ray transient monitor reports the detection of recent
flaring activity from the blazar 3C 454.3, temporally coincident with the GeV
activity recently reported from Fermi/LAT (Escande and Tanaka, ATel #2328) and
AGILE (Striani et al, ATel #2326). Examination of the data shows the source at
a level of 0.005 ± 0.0015 ct/s/cm^2 (20 mCrab) beginning on 2009-Dec-01 (MJD
55166) and rising to a high of 0.011 +/- 0.003 ct/s/cm^2 (50 mCrab) on 2009-Dec-03. The source remains above 30 mCrab.
The light curve also shows that starting
around 2009-Aug-17, the average emission from 3C 454.3 rose from its typical
level of 3.5 mCrab to approximately 8 mCrab. The source also showed flares
above 15 mCrab on 2009-Aug-23, 2009-Oct-17 and 2009-Nov-10. The first of these
episodes is roughly consistent with a flare reported by Fermi/LAT (Bastieri,
ATel #2168) and in the optical and IR (Buxton et al., ATel #2181).
BAT Transient Monitor observations of 3C 454.3
