Fermi LAT detection of a gamma-ray flare from FSRQ S5 1044+71
ATel #4941; Roopesh Ojha (NASA/GSFC/ORAU), Bryce Carpenter (CUA) and Michael Dutka (CUA) on behalf of the Fermi Large Area Telescope Collaboration
on 3 Apr 2013; 15:58 UT
Credential Certification: Roopesh Ojha (Roopesh.Ojha@gmail.com)
Subjects: Gamma Ray, >GeV, AGN, Blazar, Quasar
The Large Area Telescope (LAT), one of the two instruments on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, has observed increasing gamma-ray flux from a source positionally consistent with the flat spectrum radio quasar S5 1044+71 (also known as 2FGL J1048.3+7144, Nolan et al. 2012, ApJS, 199, 31). Localization analysis has ruled out the nearby source 2FGL J1049.7+7240 as a possible counterpart. S5 1044+71 has coordinates RA=10h48m27.6199s DEC=+71d43m35.938s, J2000, (Johnston et al. 1995, AJ, 110, 880) and redshift z=1.15 (Polatidis et al. 1995, ApJS, 98, 1).
Preliminary analysis indicates that on April 1, 2013 the daily averaged flux (E>100MeV) reached (0.9 +/- 0.2) x 10^-6 ph cm^-2 s^-1 (statistical uncertainty only) which is 17 times its average daily flux from the 2FGL catalog.
An automated search for flaring sources (http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/data/access/lat/2yr_catalog/ap_lcs_flares.html) in the aperture photometry light curves provided by the Fermi Science Support Center (http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/data/access/lat/2yr_catalog/ap_lcs.php) also shows that this source is in a state of increased emission (http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/data/access/lat/2yr_catalog/ap_lcs/lightcurve_2FGLJ1048.3p7144.png). Note the listed caveats associated with this analysis.
Because Fermi operates in an all-sky scanning mode, regular gamma-ray monitoring of this source will continue. We encourage further multifrequency observations of that region. For this source the Fermi LAT contact person is Roopesh Ojha (Roopesh.Ojha@gmail.com).
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.
