A Candidate SNR Discovered in the Swift Galactic Plane Survey

ATel #3963; M. T. Reynolds, J. M. Miller, D. Maitra, K. Gultekin (UofM); N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC); J. A. Kennea, M. H. Siegel, J. M. Gelbord (PSU); P. Kuin (MSSL)
on 12 Mar 2012; 13:31 UT
Credential Certification: Mark Reynolds (markrey@umich.edu)

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The Swift galactic plane survey team (SGPS) report the detection of a new extended X-ray source. The source was discovered in a 1.4 ks XRT exposure on 2011 October 30th.

Characterizing the new source with a circle, we measure the following coordinates for the source center: 13:47:45.7, -62:14:11 (J2000), or l,b = 309.43932, -0.078391, with a radial extent of 100 arc-seconds. We do not detect any flux at energies below 2 keV, consistent with the large column density in the direction of this source (nh = 1.7e22 cm^-2). Within this circular region we measure a count rate of (2.4+/-0.5)e-2 ct/s. Assuming a power-law spectral shape with a spectral index of 1.8, implies an integrated luminosity of 1.9e36 erg/s (d/1 kpc) in the 2 - 10 keV band.

Inspection of available archival data reveals a counterpart to the X-ray source at radio wavelengths, MGPS J134743-621354 with a measured flux density of 64.8+/-2.7 mJy (Murphy et al., 2007). A counterpart to the X-ray source is not detected at UV/opt/IR wavelengths, see the image at the link below for details.

Based on the extended nature of the X-ray source and the presence of a radio counterpart, we classify this source as a new galactic supernova remnant: Swift J134745.7-621411. This is the second SNR discovered by the SGPS (see atel #3415). Follow-up observations to confirm the nature of this source are encouraged.

Swift J134745.7-621411: Discovery multi-wavelength image.