Fermi LAT detection of a GeV flare from PKS 0402-362
ATel #2413; A. B. Hill (LAOG), J. Vandenbroucke (Stanford/KIPAC) on behalf of the Fermi Large Area Telescope Collaboration
on 2 Feb 2010; 21:04 UT
Credential Certification: Adam B. Hill (adam.hill@obs.ujf-grenoble.fr)
The Large Area Telescope (LAT), one of the two instruments on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, has observed an increasing gamma-ray flux from a source positionally consistent with PKS 0402-362 (RA: 04h02m02.5994s, Dec: -36d13m11.947s, J2000, Johnston, K. J. et al., 1995, AJ, 110, 880, z=1.417,Peterson, B. A. et al. 1976, ApJ, 207, 5).
Preliminary analysis indicates that the source on February-01-2010 was in a high state with a gamma-ray flux (E>100MeV) of (1.0 +/- 0.3) x 10^-6 ph cm^-2 s^-1 (statistical uncertainty only). This corresponds to approximately an order of magnitude increase with respect to the average flux of 1FGL J0403.9-3603 which is the LAT 1-year point source catalog object associated with PKS 0402-362.
Because Fermi operates in an all-sky scanning mode, regular gamma-ray monitoring of this source will continue. For this source the Fermi LAT contact person is J. Vandenbroucke (justinv@stanford.edu).
The Fermi LAT is a pair conversion telescope designed to cover the energy band from 20 MeV to greater than 300 GeV. It is the product of an international collaboration between NASA and DOE in the U.S. and many scientific institutions across France, Italy, Japan and Sweden.
