Fermi LAT detection of a GeV flare from blazar NRAO 190 (PKS 0440-00)
ATel #5156; S. Buson (Univ./INFN Padova) and D. Gasparrini (ASDC/OAR-INAF) on behalf of the Fermi Large Area Telescope Collaboration
on 23 Jun 2013; 06:59 UT
Credential Certification: Dario Gasparrini (dario.gasparrini@asdc.asi.it)
Subjects: Gamma Ray, >GeV, AGN, Blazar
The Large Area Telescope (LAT), one of the two instruments on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, observed a gamma-ray outburst from a source positionally consistent with the flat spectrum radio quasar NRAO 190 (also known as PKS 0440-00, DA 145, OF -067; RA: 04h 42m 38.661s, Dec: -00d 17m 43.42s, J2000.0) with redshift 0.844 (Hewitt & Burbidge 1987, 63, 1).
Preliminary analysis indicates that on 2013 June 21 NRAO 190 appeared in a flaring state with a daily gamma-ray flux (E>100MeV) of 1.0+/-0.2 x 10^-6 photons cm^-2 s^-1 (statistical uncertainty only), about 6 times the average flux of 2FGL J0442.7-0017, the gamma-ray counterpart (Nolan et al. 2012, ApJS 199, 31).
The source was detected in a similar high gamma-ray state in May 2009 (ATel #2049) and, since then, has remained almost steady showing low gamma-ray activity. Because Fermi operates in an all-sky scanning mode, regular gamma-ray monitoring of this source will continue. In consideration of the ongoing prominent gamma-ray outburst, we strongly encourage multiwavelength observations of this object. For this source the Fermi LAT contact persons are S. Ciprini (stefano.ciprini@asdc.asi.it) and F. Longo (francesco.longo@ts.infn.it).
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.
