XMMSL1 J011527.3-312354 : A bright X-ray flare in the XMM-Newton Slew Survey from the likely broad line quasar 6dFGS gJ011527.4-312352

ATel #3516; A M Read (Leicester University, UK), R D Saxton (ESAC, Madrid, Spain), P Esquej (CSIC-INTA, Spain)
on 28 Jul 2011; 13:16 UT
Credential Certification: Dr. Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk)

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We report the discovery of XMMSL1 J011527.3-312354, a bright X-ray flare, seen in an XMM-Newton Slew from 3rd July 2011. The source position (2000.0) is RA:01 15 27.3 DEC:-31 23 54 with an 8'', 1 sigma error circle.

The source is bright and point-like. The 0.2-2 keV count rate was 4.8 ct/s in the EPIC-pn detector (medium filter). This corresponds to a factor >37 increase in flux over the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS) upper limit at this position (assuming a fixed Galactic absorption out of our galaxy at this position of 2.26E20 cm-2 and a power law of photon index 1.7). XMM-Newton also slewed over this position on 5th January 2011 and saw a 2.9 ct/s (0.2-2 keV; EPIC-pn) source at the same position (corresponding to a flux increase over the RASS of a factor >22).

The single obvious catalogued counterpart is the z=0.05 galaxy, 6dFGS gJ011527.4-312352. The optical 2dF spectrum appears consistent with that of a broad line quasar. We welcome further observations to follow the evolution of this flare.